U.S. Drone attacks a PMF vehicle in Syria
Shafaq News/ A U.S. drone attack targeted a truck for an Iran-backed armed faction in eastern Syria on Sunday, destroying the vehicle but no information about casualtie, local official said on Sunday.
The attack came amid increasing tensions in the region between the U.S. military and Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups in recent weeks. The Americans have targeted militants who reportedly used drones and rockets to hit bases housing U.S. troops.
The administrator of al-Qaida sub-district in the west of al-Anbar, Ahmed Jadyan, told Shafaq News Agency, "Unidentified aircraft executed an airstrike targeting a vehicle of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF) inside the Syrian territory."
PMF's commander in East al-Anbar, Ali al-Mudhaffar, said that the attack took place in the Syrian al-Bu Kamal against a vehicle loaded with aids by the U.S. forces.
Officials in the Iraqi group refused to tip AFP what the truck was carrying. They said the U.S. drone first fired a warning shot, after which the driver jumped out, and a missile hit the vehicle shortly afterward. They said the truck belonged to Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, which is active along the Iraq-Syria border.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.
Syrian state TV reported the attack saying it was carried out by American drones. It said the truck was carrying food and there were no human losses.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the truck was carrying weapons and ammunition for an Iraqi militia and was hit shortly after crossing the border from Iraq. It claimed that the driver was killed.
On June 27, U.S. Air Force planes carried out airstrikes near the Iraq-Syria border against what the Pentagon said were facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups to support drone strikes inside Iraq. Four militiamen were killed.
Days later, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada's commander vowed to retaliate and since then several rockets attacks have been reported against bases housing U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq.
Hundreds of U.S. troops are deployed in eastern Syria as part of the war against the Islamic State group. Thousands of Iran-backed fighters are deployed in different parts of Syria to help President Bashar Assad’s forces in the 10-year conflict that killed half a million people.
