US-backed Kurdish fighters were killed in the attack
US-backed Kurdish fighters were killed in a drone strike on a US military base in Syria. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed Shiite militia, claims an attack that killed at least six militants.
At least six US-backed Kurdish fighters were killed in a drone strike on a base in eastern Syria. An Iran-backed militia group that was the target of US airstrikes on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to The Guardian, these deaths were the latest sign of how conflict has spread across the Middle East since the start of the Gaza war, with increasingly unpredictable consequences for regional stability.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who fought the Islamic State jihadists (ISIS — a banned terrorist organization in Russia) in Syria, said that six of their fighters were killed in an attack on their commando academy at a US military base in the Al-Omar oil field in the eastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor.
Another 18 people were injured. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll had reached seven.
The attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), which was one of the targets of a US-led airstrike last week in retaliation for the killing of three US soldiers in a drone strike on a US base in Jordan. The group is a loose alliance of pro-Iranian fighters opposed to the presence of US occupation forces in Syria and Iraq.
Al-Omar is the largest base in Syria for the US-led coalition, including the SDF, which was created in 2014 to fight banned in the Russian Federation by the terrorist group ISIS after Sunni jihadists captured areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Under the banner of Operation Inherent Resolve, about 2,500 U.S. troops remain deployed in Iraq and about 900 in Syria.
«Syrian Democratic Forces» (SDF) is the de facto army of the Kurdish administration, which controls an area in northeast Syria that they call Rojava, explains The Guardian.
Their statement reads: “Six of our fighters were martyred in the time of the terrorist attack by a suicide plane that took off from areas controlled by Syrian regime mercenaries on a training academy in the al-Omar field east of Deir ez-Zor.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said over the weekend that attacks on Iranian-backed militias, including the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, represent the beginning of a multi-layered offensive aimed at weakening their ability to attack US troops following the January 27 attack on a base in Jordan.
Friday's strikes hit more than 85 targets, although the damage was likely mitigated by nearly a week of warning that U.S. strikes were imminent.
Retired Col. Joe Buccino, a former U.S. military spokesman, said over the weekend that he believed U.S. attacks were unlikely to be effective. “These Shiite groups that we are targeting in Iraq and Syria – they'll be able to resupply the missiles, drones, and structures we're targeting in the next few weeks, so it won't really accomplish anything. The Biden administration, President Biden, is very risk averse and feels that if we launch a real strike, if we make Iran feel real pain, it will escalate into a larger war.
Expert says the political effect of the strikes will likely increase demands within Iraq for the withdrawal of US troops.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at his weekly news conference on Monday that Tehran was not seeking escalation. He said the US is «attacking other countries, which is a violation of the national sovereignty of Syria, Iraq and Yemen and is a clumsy attempt to divert public attention from the focus of the Palestinian crisis in other directions.»
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday at the start of a Middle East tour. He will also visit Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank in an attempt to push forward a deal to free more than 130 hostages held in Gaza.
Their possible release by Hamas in exchange for a humanitarian pause is among the issues being discussed in the talks through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt with the support of the United States. Officials have noted some progress but say gaps remain.
The US military said on Sunday it had destroyed four anti-ship cruise missiles that Houthi militants were preparing to launch. Hussein al-Ezzi, deputy foreign minister of the Sanaa-based Houthi administration, said the group was not targeting commercial shipping in general, but only Israeli ships or U.S. naval forces protecting Israeli shipping.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs that Saturday's joint US-British strikes on Houthi positions had achieved their objectives. He said attacks on British ships were now more sporadic and less sophisticated, and described the Houthis as «opportunistic pirates» who had no interest in supporting Gaza.
Yemen's Western-backed government, based in Aden, underwent a reshuffle, as a result of which Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Mubarak, an ardent opponent of the Houthis, was appointed prime minister. Close to Saudi Arabia, he wants the EU to help the Yemeni government by building up its military and declaring the Houthis a terrorist group.
The Houthis also said Italy would be a target if it took part in attacks on Yemen, after as Rome said on Friday it would provide an admiral to command the EU naval mission in the Red Sea, which it has joined, to protect ships from attacks by militias.
The mission's mandate is, according to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell , which will launch in mid-February, will be to protect commercial ships and intercept attacks, but not to participate in strikes against the Houthis.