Tit-for-tat drone strike
Attack on US base kills three as Mid-East tension soars
DAMASCUS: A drone attack by an Iran-backed militia group has killed six Kurdish fighters at a US base in Syria – the first major response to American airstrikes against Tehran’s proxies over the weekend.
Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which had claimed credit for previous attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, said it carried out the latest drone strike at al-Omar. It said it was targeting American forces stationed there.
The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the drone struck a training academy, killing six of its militia members. No casualties were reported among American troops.
The attack occurred hours after the US launched a fresh wave of strikes targeting Houthis in Yemen, and two days after the US conducted dozens of airstrikes in Iraq and
Syria in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three of its soldiers in Jordan.
Since October 7, Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen have launched at least 160 drone attacks on US facilities in the region.
As tensions across the region escalated, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed back to the Middle East to resume efforts to secure a truce in the Israel-Hamas war.
On his fifth trip to the region since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Mr Blinken met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss “regional co-ordination to achieve an enduring end to the crisis in Gaza” and of the “urgent need to reduce regional tensions,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, referring to the surge in attacks across the region by Hamas allies.
But Russia and China have accused the US during a UN Security Council meeting of stoking already high tensions in the Middle East with its recent retaliatory strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria.
The strikes, which targeted elite Iranian units and pro-Iranian militant groups, have led to fears that the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza could spiral into a regional conflict.
“It’s clear that American airstrikes are specifically, deliberately aimed to stoke the conflict,” said Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzia, whose country had called for the emergency Security Council meeting on Monday.
Chinese ambassador Jun Zhang similarly claimed the “US actions will certainly exacerbate the vicious cycle of tit-for-tat violence”.
The US strikes have drawn criticism from Iraq and Syria, as well as Iran, which denies any role in last month’s attack.