Drone strikes a US-led coalition base in southern Syria

• A drone attack hit a US-led coalition base in southern Syria.
• The coalition shot down two of the drones.
• The attackers made no immediate claim of responsibility.

According to the US military’s Central Command, a drone attack hit a US-led coalition base in southern Syria.

“Three one-way attack drones attacked Syria’s al-Tanf Garrison,” CENTCOM said in a statement on Friday.

The coalition shot down two of the drones, but the third struck the compound, injuring two allied Syrian opposition fighters who were treated, according to the statement.

“Attacks of this kind are unacceptable,” CENTCOM spokesperson Joe Buccino said, without naming the perpetrators.

“They place our troops and our partners at risk and jeopardize the fight against ISIL.”

The attackers made no immediate claim of responsibility.

Iran-backed forces are stationed near al-Tanf, a desert garrison on the strategically important Baghdad-Damascus highway, near the Iraqi and Jordanian borders.

Iran is a key ally of the Syrian government, and the coalition has previously disrupted similar attacks on al-Tanf.

In the area, there are also sleeper cells of the armed ISIL (ISIS) group.

In 2016, the coalition established the base to train Syrian fighters for the fight against ISIL.

Even after the fighters’ last Syrian outpost was overrun by Kurdish-led forces in March 2019, it kept the facility.

As part of the coalition’s ongoing campaign against ISIL remnants, approximately 900 US troops remain at al-Tanf and other bases in the Kurdish-controlled northeast.

The US has previously carried out attacks on infrastructure facilities allegedly used by groups affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The raids, it said, were in response to alleged attacks on al-Tanf by Iranian-backed fighters.

The Syrian government has consistently expressed its opposition to the US role in Syria and has demanded that US forces leave the country.

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