Six Kurdish fighters killed in drone attack on Syrian base housing US troops

A drone attack on a base housing US troops in eastern Syria killed six allied Kurdish fighters late on Sunday, in the first significant attack in Syria or Iraq since the US launched retaliatory strikes over the weekend against Iran-backed militias.

The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday the attack hit a training ground at al-Omar base in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour. It initially accused “Syrian regime-backed mercenaries” but in a second statement blamed “Iran-backed militias” after investigating the attack.

No casualties were reported among US troops.

An umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militias, dubbed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, released a video claiming responsibility for the attack and showing them launching a drone from an unspecified location.

In late January, a drone attack by the same group killed three US troops and wounded dozens more at a desert base in Jordan.

The US military launched dozens of retaliatory strikes targeting Iran-backed militant groups in western Iraq and eastern Syria and also struck the Houthis in Yemen.

The umbrella group has launched dozens of drone attacks on US military bases and troops in Iraq and Syria, and has called for the withdrawal of American soldiers from both countries.

The attack comes as tensions flare across the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war, which was sparked by Hamas’s rampage in southern Israel on October 7.

Meanwhile, Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least seven SDF fighters were killed in the attack on Sunday and at least 18 others wounded, some in critical condition. It did not say whether any US military personnel were among the casualties.

The attack late on Sunday came two days after the US military carried out strikes against militant targets linked to Iran in Syria and Iraq.

The SDF said it has the right to respond to the attack.

The US military said it struck four anti-ship missiles on Sunday that were prepared to be fired at vessels in the Red Sea from Houthi rebel-controlled areas in Yemen.

In a statement early on Monday, the US Central Command said the strikes were in self-defence and came after forces determined the missiles “presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.”

Sunday’s strikes came a day after the US and UK launched a second wave of strikes against the Houthis, meant to degrade the Iranian-backed group’s capabilities to attack vessels in the Red Sea. The US and UK said they hit 36 Houthi targets.