The US military carried out airstrikes in Syria late on Thursday, targeting armed groups close to Iran that Washington blamed for the UAV attack that killed one US contractor and wounded another contractor and five US military personnel, according to a press release. release published by the Pentagon.

According to the text, a drone attack was carried out yesterday Thursday at 13:38 (local time; 12:28 Greek time) on the base of the international forces of the US-led coalition near Hasaka (northeast).

US intelligence agencies believe that the UAV was of Iranian origin.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the retaliatory airstrikes targeted organizations associated with the Revolutionary Guards, an elite military unit of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a key ally of Damascus in the war in Syria.

“The airstrikes were carried out in retaliation for the attack, as well as a series of recent attacks on (international counter-jihadist) coalition forces by organizations associated with the Revolutionary Guards,” Mr. Austin said, according to a US Department of Defense statement. .

Syrian battle with jihadists

Meanwhile, on Thursday, five Syrian soldiers and an equal number of jihadists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Syrian arm of al-Qaeda, were killed in fighting in northern Syria’s Aleppo province, the NGO said. . said.

The fighting included forces from President Bashar al-Assad’s army and the HTS, who, along with other, less powerful jihadist and insurgent groups, control about half of the province of Idlib (northwest) and parts of neighboring provinces, especially Aleppo.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the fighting began when “members of a jihadist organization invaded the western part of the province of Aleppo.”

Ten members of the HTS and six members of the Syrian army have also been wounded in the fighting, according to the NGO, which has a wide network of sources in the war-torn country.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, after ground fighting, the Damascus air force bombed a civilian area in Atareb, in the western part of Aleppo province, as a result of which “ten civilians were injured.”

According to the NGO, since the beginning of the year, 124 people, combatants and civilians, have died in fighting and shelling, artillery shelling and air strikes – five civilians, 86 Syrian soldiers and 30 jihadists.

Syrian state media did not report on the fighting on Thursday.

According to the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, since the end of 2022, the HTS has “intensified its bombardment” of regime forces in Idlib amid warming relations between Ankara and Damascus.

Syria and Turkey, the patroness of the rebels, have resumed dialogue after more than a decade of rift between them over the war that broke out in Syria in 2011.

Despite sporadic and sometimes bloody fighting, the ceasefire agreement negotiated by Damascus ally Moscow with Ankara has been broadly respected since March 2020 in Idlib and neighboring areas.

The very complex war in Syria, now in its 13th year, has claimed the lives of more than half a million people, displaced millions more and caused refugees and caused a massive economic and humanitarian crisis.

Source: RES-IPE