DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Several Katyusha rockets have hit military facilities housing U.S. occupation forces in Syria’s oil-producing northern provinces of Dayr al-Zawr and Hasakah.
A military source told the Arabic-language Shafaq news agency that ‏three projectiles slammed into a base, which houses U.S. troops in Dayr al-Zawr and sits near the border with Iraq, on Friday evening.
Witnesses said successive explosions were heard after the rockets targeted the military base. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
The U.S. military said it responded to the attack, and struck the rocket launchers with 155mm howitzers.
The General Organization of Radio and Television Syria (ORTAS) also reported late on Friday that a number of rockets had been fired on a military airbase housing U.S. occupation forces in the country’s northeastern province of Hasakah. The rockets landed at the edge of the base in al-Shaddadi town.
Last month, four powerful explosions were heard inside a military facility housing U.S. troops in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr province, after a number of rockets targeted the base.
Meanwhile, local residents of a town in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah have prevented a U.S. military convoy from attempting to pass through their community.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that a U.S. convoy of five armored vehicles was forced on Friday afternoon to turn around and head back in the direction it came from after Tell Hamis locals blocked the road, and prevented its movement.
The report added that U.S.-backed Kurdish militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) escorted American occupation forces until they left the area.
Additionally, U.S. troops brought in reinforcements from neighboring Iraq into areas in northeastern Syria, SANA reported.
The American forces brought in a number of battle tanks through al-Waleed border crossing between Iraq and Syria, SANA said, adding that 40 military vehicles entered the Syrian territories.
The U.S. military has stationed forces and equipment in eastern and northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, says the unlawful deployment is meant to plunder the country’s resources.