on Friday 24 March, 2023

US forces in Syria attacked for second time in two days, Washington says no injuries

American soldiers stand near military trucks, at al-Omar oil field in Deir Al Zor on March 23, 2019. (Reuters)
by : Agencies

A US base in northeast Syria was attacked on Friday in the second such incident in two days, but the Pentagon said no American troops were killed or injured.

The missile attack did not cause any damage to infrastructure in what one US official said was “an ineffective attack.”

Seven rockets targeted the US base, a Pentagon official told Fox News.

US forces carried out a retaliatory strike against pro-Iran targets in Syria on Thursday night following an earlier attack on a different US base, which killed an American contractor and wounded five US service members and another US contractor.

The US has not provided details about its operation other than to say it was conducted in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). “These precision strikes are intended to protect and defend US personnel. The United States took proportionate and deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimize casualties,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said afterward. “No group will strike our troops with impunity,” he warned.

On Friday, a US official told Al Arabiya English that the US would take all necessary measures to defend its people and would always respond “at a time and place of our choosing.”