Syrian, Iraqi forces say US bombed border positions

UK-based war monitor says strike killed 52 people • America denies responsibility

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian state media said on Monday that US-led coalition aircraft bombed a Syrian army position near the Iraqi border, causing deaths and injuries, but the US military denied it was responsible.

The attack took place in al-Harra, southeast of the town of Albu Kamal, state news agency SANA said, citing a military source. SANA said the attack caused an unspecified number of deaths and injuries.

A commander in the alliance fighting alongside Damascus told Reuters that drones which he said were “probably American” bombed the positions of Iraqi factions between Albu Kamal and Tanf, as well as Syrian military positions.

The commander, who is not Syrian and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the strike had killed and injured some Iraqi fighters, but he did not give any numbers.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, a grouping of mostly Iran-backed Shi’ite paramilitaries, said a US air strike on the Iraqi border with Syria killed 22 of its members and wounded 12 others.

“At 22:00 last night a US plane hit a fixed headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces’ 45th and 46th brigades defending the border strip with Syria, using two guided missiles which led to the martyrdom of 22 fighters,” it said in a statement.

It demanded an explanation from the United States.

“No member of the US-led coalition carried out strikes near Albu Kamal,” Maj. Josh Jacques, a US Central Command spokesman, told Reuters.

The US-led coalition uses air power and special forces to back an alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State northeast of Albu Kamal. US forces are also based around the Tanf crossing, southwest of the town in the Syrian Desert near the borders of Iraq and Jordan.

President Bashar Assad’s army, with the help of Iran-backed militias including Hezbollah and Iraqi groups, drove Islamic State from Albu Kamal and its environs last year, but the jihadists have since staged attacks there.

The Popular Mobilization Forces have been officially included in Iraq’s governmental forces but many of them still maintain loyalties to their former leaders and political groups. They said the base that was hit was in Syrian territory and the Syrian government was aware of their presence.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said unidentified planes had struck Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah and other allied foreign militias around Albu Kamal.

The UK-based Observatory said the strikes had killed 52 people. Reuters could not independently verify the Observatory’s report of casualties.

An Israeli military spokeswoman who was asked about the reported air strikes said, “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

Throughout Syria’s seven-year war, Israel has carried out scores of strikes within the neighboring country against what it describes as Hezbollah or Iranian targets.

Israel, alarmed about the clout of arch-enemies Iran and Hezbollah, has pressed Russia, Assad’s other key ally, to make sure Tehran does not entrench its military sway in Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet he had “repeated and clarified” his Syria policy in weekend phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“First of all, Iran must clear out of all of Syria,” Netanyahu said on Sunday, according to a statement from his office. “Secondly, we will take action, and are already taking action, against the attempted military entrenchment of Iran and its proxies, both close to the border and deep within Syria.”

In an interview last week, Assad called Hezbollah “a basic element” in the war and said, “The need for these military forces will continue for a long time.”

He said the United States was an occupying power in Syria and that his state supported “any act of resistance, whether against terrorists or against occupying forces, regardless of their nationality.”