A coalition official said in a statement that after monitoring “a number of missile launch sites that pose an imminent danger (…) the coalition forces have eliminated this danger” by targeting these sites with air strikes.
The statement indicated that the missiles were targeting the US military base “Green Village” in the Euphrates Valley, the area where ISIS fighters are still active, and where US forces continue to cooperate with the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The official, who asked not to be named, added that these missiles “pose a serious threat to civilians due to their lack of accuracy,” stressing that “the coalition forces reserve the right to defend themselves.”
In response to a question about who was behind this attack, the third of its kind in less than 48 hours after two similar attacks, the first of which targeted a compound of the international coalition at Baghdad airport, and the second on Tuesday of Ain Al-Assad Air Base in western Iraq, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that it is not able to identify it.
But Kirby said, “We continue to see our forces in Iraq and Syria threatened by Iranian-backed militias.”
These attacks, none of which resulted in casualties, coincide with the second anniversary of the killing of the former commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Guard, Qassem Soleimani, in a raid carried out by an American drone near Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
About 900 American soldiers are still deployed in northeastern Syria and at Al-Tanf base in the south of this country, near its borders with Iraq and Jordan.
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