At least 19 people were killed in eastern Syria in US attacks in retaliation for the death of a US contractor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported today in an updated balance sheet.
The Pentagon said it carried out an airstrike on Thursday in response to a drone attack on a US military base in northeastern Syria that killed an American contractor and wounded six others.
The drone was of “Iranian origin” and struck near Hasake, a base of the US-led international coalition against the radical Islamic State (IS) group.
Last night, Iranian-backed militias in the area returned to the charge with rockets, to which the United States responded with more airstrikes, according to the OSDH.
According to this group, whose headquarters are in London but has a network of informants in Syria, 19 people died in the United States attacks: three Syrian Army soldiers and 16 pro-Iranian militiamen, of whom 11 are Syrian nationals, according to the AFP news agency.
The previous balance provided by the OSHD was 14 deaths.
Despite the upsurge in violence, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, assured that he “does not seek to enter into a conflict with Iran.”
“Make no mistake: The United States does not seek conflict with Iran, but it is prepared to act forcefully to protect its people,” the president said yesterday during a visit to Canada.
The UN, for its part, called on those involved to “exercise restraint.”
“We are concerned about the continued tensions and we are trying to see what we can do to reduce the tensions of different forces in Syria,” said the deputy spokesman for the United Nations Secretary General, Farhan Haq, quoted by the Europa Press news agency.
“It is important that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria be respected” (…) we are aware of the complexity of the situation of foreign forces, but we ask them to exercise restraint,” Haq added when asked by a journalist about the presence of foreign troops in Syria.
Some 900 US soldiers are in Syria as part of an international coalition fighting what’s left of IS. These soldiers are frequent targets of attacks carried out by militias.
Iranian groups and their allies, supporters of Bashar al Assad’s government, are strongly established in these areas close to the border with Iraq, which constitute an important crossing point for arms into Syria.
US troops also support the SDF, the Kurdish militias that led the battle against the IS group to drive it out of the last territories it controlled in Syria in 2019.
Source: Ambito
