These bombings targeted infrastructure in the province of Deir Ezzor, used by the Revolutionary Guards present in the region.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday (August 23) ordered airstrikes targeting pro-Iranian militia bases in eastern Syria, the US military announced.
These strikes took place in the province of Deir Ezzor and targetedinfrastructure used by the Revolutionary Guards,” linked to the Iranian regime, spokesman for the US military’s Central Command in the Middle East, Colonel Joe Buccino, said in a statement. The Revolutionary Guard Corps, considered the Iranian regime’s ideological army, is on the US blacklist of “terrorist groups“.
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These “precision strikesare aimed, according to Colonel Buccino, atdefend and protect U.S. forces from attacks like those carried out on August 15 by Iranian-backed groups“. Several drones then attacked an advanced base of the anti-jihadist coalition, according to the Americans who had not deplored any casualties.
The American aerial bombardment on Tuesday hit nine bunkers used in particular for the storage of ammunition, Colonel Bucino then told CNN. US forces had planned to bomb 11 of the 13 bunkers in the compound but halted strikes on two of them after groups of people were seen in their vicinity, he added. According to an initial assessment no one was killed, he said.
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“The United States does not seek conflict»
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), a London-based NGO with an extensive network of sources in Syria, said on Wednesday that six fighters guarding the targets were killed in the strikes. . Their nationality could not be determined immediately, added the OSDH, stressing that Afghan Shiite fighters supported by Iran were among the groups operating in the region. “The United States does not seek conflict but will continue to take the necessary steps to protect and defend our people.“, underlines Colonel Bucino in the Centcom press release.
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The US bombardment was not immediately confirmed by Syrian state media. Hundreds of American soldiers are deployed in northeastern Syria as part of the anti-jihadist coalition responsible for fighting, with their Kurdish allies from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group. Tuesday’s bombardment came on the same day as Iranian state media announced on Sunday the death of a Revolutionary Guards general, killed during a “assignmentin Syria.
No details were given on the circumstances of the death of the general, just described as a “sanctuary defendera term used to refer to those who work on behalf of Iran in Syria or Iraq. Iran says it deployed forces to Syria at the invitation of the Damascus regime and merely as advisers. Arms depots and a training camp for pro-Iranian militia fighters are among the targets, the OSDH said.
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