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News ID: 92113
Publish Date : 05 July 2021 - 21:43

Massive Blasts Hit Largest U.S. Base in Syria

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- The United States’ biggest military base in Syria has been hit by a number of “massive” explosions, local reports say.
The blasts rocked the outpost located in Syria’s Al-Omar oilfield in the Arab country’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.
Yemen’s Al-Masirah television network cited Syrian sources as saying that “successive” blasts hit the facility.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based so-called monitor, also told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that the oilfield had been hit by a number of rockets.
Russia’s RT Arabic quoted Farhad Shami of the U.S.-backed SDF militant group as saying that “two rockets” had landed on the western periphery of the oilfield.
Washington has deployed troops to Syria and neighboring Iraq since 2014 under the pretext of fighting the terrorist group of Daesh.
Various reports and regional officials, however, provided evidence of the U.S. military’s role in relocating Daesh’s elements about in both the countries.
In Syria, the United States has been trying to keep a tight control over certain strategic areas, including the eastern oilfield, where it is engaged in large-scale theft of the country’s crude.
The Iraqi parliament and Damascus have both ruled the U.S.-led coalition’s operation in the countries as illegal.
This is not the first time the American forces come under attack in either country.
The latest of the attacks to target the foreign forces in Syria came on June 28 after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes along Iraq and Syria’s common border.
During the incident, American warplanes struck one location in Iraq and two in Syria, with the Pentagon alleging the targets to be “facilities” used by Iraqi resistance groups to stage drone attacks on American interests.

According to Iraq’s Sabereen News, four Iraqi fighters were killed in the attack on the headquarters of the 14th Brigade of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units of Hashd al-Sha’abi anti-terror umbrella organization, which features some resistance groups. A reporter with the official Syrian Arab News Agency also said the offensive had killed one child and injured three others.
The Iraqi groups have pledged to retaliate for the attack.
On Monday, an airbase in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, where American military forces and trainers are stationed, came under a barrage of rockets.
An Iraqi security source told Al-Sumaria television that three Katyusha rockets hit near the Ain al-Asad airbase west of the capital Baghdad.
“At approximately 2:45 PM local time (1145 GMT), Ain al-Assad Airbase was attacked by three rockets. The rockets landed on the base perimeter. There are no injuries and damage is being assessed,” Colonel Wayne Marotto, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, tweeted.
Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units reported that eight 107mm rockets were fired at the base and four of the projectiles landed inside the military installation.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, which is the latest in a series of assaults that have targeted U.S. occupation forces over the past few months.