According to reports appearing in the international press late yesterday (19 October), the al-Tanf military base in southern Syria – where US troops provide training for local forces in support of the current campaign against Islamic State – came under attack from multiple drones earlier in the day. The base is in a sensitive location, close to a route commonly used to ferry weapons and supplies to Hezbollah.
Details are somewhat contradictory and confusing, but it appears that at least one drone was destroyed, but minor casualties were caused by a second air vehicle. No official announcement has been made at the time of writing (0900 BST 20 October).
The attack follows similar actions against US and Coalition bases in Iraq recently (see post earlier today here), which are attributed to regional anger over the hundreds of casualties caused by an explosion in a Gaza hospital, which many observers attribute to an Israeli airstrike but which Israel suggests was caused my mishandling of a rocket preparing to be fired into the Jewish nation. Additional reports indicate the possibility of at least three explosives-laden drones attacking a Conoco gas installation in Syria’s eastern Deir el-Zour province, with one source stating that five separate explosions were heard there.
For more information: Drones attack US military base in Syria, US officials say | AP News
(Image: US forces in Syria are providing a variety of training for regional military and internal security forces. Credit: US DoD)
