Eight US troops were injured in a drone attack on their base in northeastern Syria, the Pentagon has revealed. Initial reports of the strike mentioned no casualties.
According to footage shared online last week, a drone may have started a fire at the installation in Rimelan, near the border with Türkiye and Iraq.
Air Force Major-General Patrick Ryder, the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, revealed the number of injuries to reporters on Tuesday. The eight personnel affected were treated for “traumatic brain injury” and smoke inhalation, he added, and three of them have already returned to duty.
According to Ryder, the US believes that “Iran-backed forces” carried out the attack, but the Pentagon is still working to determine which particular militia may have been behind it.
Initial reports of the drone strike at Rimelan did not disclose injuries, but an unnamed US official told Reuters last Friday that medical evaluations and damage assessments were ongoing.
Rimelan, also known as Rmelan and Rumalyn, is located in Syria’s Hasakah governorate. In late 2015, US troops took over the Abu Hajar airport and set up a base there, dubbed the Rumalyn Landing Zone (RLZ). The facility has been used to supply US troops and their Kurdish allies in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists.
IS took over large portions of Syria and Iraq in 2014. As Iran and Russia backed Syrian government troops against the terrorists, the US sent troops and recruited Kurdish militias in order to claim the eastern part of Syria, where most of the country’s oil reserves and agricultural land is located.
Washington has since kept around 900 troops in Syria, despite objections from Damascus and in violation of international law. The Pentagon has described its mission as “preventing a resurgence” of IS. Meanwhile, the Kurdish militias holding the area with US support have refused to reintegrate into Syria.