Rockets hit US base in eastern Syria, no casualties reported

Two rockets struck a base housing American troops in jap Syria on Wednesday with out inflicting any human or materials losses, the US army stated.

The morning assault on Mission Assist Web site Conoco got here as Iran and its allies within the area marked the third anniversary of the killing of Iran’s main normal and chief of the highly effective Quds power, Qassem Soleimani, in a US drone strike within the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Nobody claimed duty for the assault in jap Syria, the place it’s not unusual for bases housing US troops to come back beneath rocket hearth or mortar assaults. Iran-backed militia are based mostly close by as are sleeper cells of the Islamic State group that was defeated in Syria in March 2019.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition struggle monitor, stated the rockets have been fired by Arab tribesmen within the area who’re armed by Iran.

“Assaults of this sort place Coalition Forces and the civilian populace in danger and undermine the hard-earned stability and safety of Syria and the area,” stated Joe Buccino, spokesman for the US Central Command, in a press release.

CENTCOM stated members of the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces visited the positioning from which the rockets originated, and located a 3rd that was not fired.

The US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces introduced later Wednesday that they arrested a senior determine within the Islamic State group, the militants’ monetary official from Deir el-Zour province. His arrest comes amid a dayslong marketing campaign by the US-backed power towards IS sleeper cells in elements of northeastern Syria which have claimed duty for lethal assaults in current weeks.

There are roughly 900 US troops in Syria, together with within the north and farther south and east.