The assault comes as violence in Syria intensifies, with opposition fighters advancing towards authorities positions.
Washington, DC – The Pentagon has confirmed that the USA carried out a strike towards navy property in jap Syria after a rocket assault close to certainly one of its bases.
Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder informed reporters on Tuesday that the US navy struck weapons methods — together with rocket launchers and a tank — that “offered a transparent and imminent risk” to its forces within the space.
The US strike comes as violence escalates throughout the war-torn country. Over the past week, armed opposition teams carried out a blistering offensive in northwest Syria towards the federal government forces led by President Bashar al-Assad, ushering in a brand new stage of the nation’s long-running civil conflict.
The offensive has raised questions on how the US would possibly reply and whether or not it may turn into entangled within the battle, given its important navy presence in Syria.
Ryder mentioned on Tuesday that the assault was in response to a rocket launch that fell “within the neighborhood” of Navy Assist Web site (MSS) Euphrates, a US base in jap Syria.
He added that it’s not clear who was working the weapons, however Iran-backed teams and Syrian authorities forces are identified to be within the space.
The Pentagon spokesperson burdened that the motion is “not linked to any broader actions in northwest Syria by different teams”.
However on Tuesday, Damascus accused the US of offering air assist for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which pushed to advance towards government-controlled villages east of the Euphrates River, close to the town of Deir ez-Zor.
The SDF has acquired US assist for years beneath the said purpose of combating ISIL (ISIS).
Syrian state-run Alikhbaria TV reported on Tuesday that clashes have been going down between SDF and authorities forces close to the village of Tabiyet Jazira “with the intervention of US occupation jets which are focusing on the frontlines within the space”.
The SDF had claimed earlier within the day that it took management of seven villages east of the Euphrates because of the “critical risk associated to the approaching motion of huge ISIS terrorist cells”.
“The deployment of our forces to those villages is in response to the pressing pleas and appeals of the native populace, following the growing potential dangers that ISIS will exploit the occasions within the west of the nation,” the SDF’s Deir ez-Zor Navy Council mentioned in an announcement.
However the Syrian authorities mentioned the villages stay beneath its management.
Farther west, authorities troops have been battling rebels attempting to advance in direction of the central city of Hama because the entrance strains of the conflict, which had gone largely dormant over the previous 4 years, see main shifts.
Insurgent teams, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which had been confined to the northwestern Idlib province, launched their offensive final week, taking management of Aleppo and heading south in direction of Hama.
The nation had skilled relative calm since 2020 with the federal government, insurgent teams and SDF largely remaining inside their unofficial territories.
However the opposition seems to have struck at an opportune second when President al-Assad’s principal navy backers — Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — are specializing in their own conflicts elsewhere.
The US, which calls Assad a “brutal dictator”, has denied any involvement within the rebels’ offensive, highlighting that Washington considers HTS to be a “terrorist” group.
HTS is a reiteration of al-Nusra Entrance, which operated as al-Qaeda’s department in Syria early within the conflict.
Based on the Pentagon, Washington has 900 troops in Syria and a deep alliance with the SDF, one of many main events to the battle.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon’s Ryder declined to reply questions concerning the SDF’s operations within the Deir ez-Zor space.
“Our focus has been on working with the SDF because it pertains to countering ISIS, and that continues to be our focus,” he mentioned.
