DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – The United States military says two rocket attacks targeted its base in northeastern Syria, but said there were no injuries to its forces.
In a statement, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the attacks “targeted coalition forces” at its base in al-Shaddadi in Syria late on Friday.
It did not say who was behind the rocket fire.
The attacks come as tensions escalate on the Syria-Turkey border with the Turkish military launching a wave of deadly air raids on Kurdish forces in both Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a bombing in Istanbul on November 13. Ankara blames the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the YPG Kurdish forces for the attack, but they deny any involvement.
There have also been rocket attacks from Syria that have killed civilians in Turkey.
CENTCOM said that U.S.-sponsored and Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) later visited the rocket launch site, and found an unfired rocket there.
Late on November 17, a military facility housing U.S. occupation forces in Syria’s oil-producing eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr came under a rocket attack.
Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units – better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi – reported at the time that several rockets had struck the vicinity of the U.S.-controlled al-Omar oil field.
The Arabic-language Radio Souryana station also reported that several explosions were heard inside the U.S.-run base, and attack helicopters flew overhead at a low altitude in the aftermath of the attack.
The U.S. military has for long stationed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of the Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s natural resources. Former US president Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.