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Iran-backed militants fire missiles at US base in Syria

By Campbell Macdiarmid MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT

MISSILES rained down on an American base in eastern Syria yesterday morning, a day after the US launched air strikes against Iran-backed militia bases in retaliation for a deadly drone attack.

The base at Al-omar oil field was hit by a salvo of missiles hours after the Pentagon said it had carried out “precision air strikes” against facilities in the area used by groups affiliated to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The US struck after it concluded that an Iranian drone had been used to attack a US base near Hassakeh, in north-east Syria, on Thursday, killing an American contractor and wounding five US troops and another contractor. Yesterday’s retaliatory attack further raised tensions in the region as the White House sought to limit the prospect of hostilities escalating.

John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesman, said that the US was not seeking conflict with Iran, but added that Tehran should not support attacks on American facilities. The US strikes in Syria were aimed at protecting American personnel in the country, where Islamic State and Iranbacked militants remain a threat, he told CNN yesterday. Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, had earlier issued a statement that read: “No group will strike our troops with impunity.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US strikes killed 11 proiranian fighters.

Lethal attacks on American personnel in Syria are rare. In January three drones attacked the US base at Tanf in eastern Syria, injuring two Syrian fighters. While a little-known militia claimed responsibility for the attack, analysts concluded it was probably a front group that gave the IRGC plausible deniability.

Some 900 American troops are based in eastern Syria on a mission to prevent a resurgence of IS.

Bashar al-assad, Syria’s president, who is supported by Iran and Russia, views the Americans as occupiers and is being reintegrated into the Arab world after surviving a 12-year civil war characterised by attacks on Syrian civilians that made him a pariah.

Saudi Arabia is close to reaching an agreement to reopen its embassy in Damascus for the first time in a decade.

World News

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2023-03-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

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Daily Telegraph