On Tuesday night, there have been a series of airstrikes from US Apache helicopters in militant-controlled areas in Eastern Syria.
As of early Wednesday morning of this week, news has spread of US airstrikes being carried out in Eastern areas of Syria, most notably the Deir Ez-Zor area. The targeted areas have been identified as being fortified militias supported by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The Deir Ez-Zor area has been a hotspot for conflict throughout the Syrian War as it strategically borders Iraq and contains invaluable oil resources. There has been a constant tossing about of patronage between Iran-backed troops and Syrian forces controlling the area. Israeli warplanes have also been noted to drop strikes throughout the years of the Syrian war due to the area’s high-interest value.
There has been little official media coverage on behalf of Syria’s state-run media as well as null acknowledgement from Iran about the attack.
However, thanks to the monitoring offered by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in association with the activist collective Deir Ezzor 24, reports have been issued that there were airstrikes aimed toward the Ayash Camp. The Camp is managed by the Fatimiyoun group, a collective of Shiite Afghani fighters.
Apparently, Deir Ezzor 24 reports that there was an estimated 6 Syrian casualties, as well as an undefined number of foreign militants killed by the airstrikes.
The U.S. military’s Central Command has released comments on the airstrikes, although has not identified any specific targets which justified the strikes taking place. The US Central Command claims that, under the orders of President Joe Biden, the strikes were a “proportionate, deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimize the risk of casualties.”
Col. Joe Buccino, the spokesperson for the US military Central Command adds:
Today’s strikes were necessary to protect and defend US personnel.
Col. Joe Buccino, HuffPost
Allegedly, back on August 15, there were a series of airstrikes launched with the support of Iranian militias that targeted US forces in the area. The affected area of the August 15 strikes was in al-Tanf Garrison, which the US military mostly occupies. US troops have advanced into Syrian territory back in 2015, in attempts to support allied forces against the Islamic State group terrorizing the nation. However, 7 years down the line, US troops seem to be fighting for their presence on Syrian soil, as noted by this constancy of airstrikes, back and forth. Although the Colonel deems this week’s airstrikes were a response to the ones on August 15th, the fact that there was no damage and no record of casualties that occurred from those attacks, makes these airstrikes – deemed an appropriate response – seem a tad overwrought.
This act of transgression on a sovereign state is but another notch in the past decade of despotism that plagues Western and Eastern relations.
Read here on the Shocking Truth Behind Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis.
