WASHINGTON — Three US troops in Syria are being medically evaluated for traumatic mind accidents after incoming mortar rounds landed close to the MSS Euphrates base east of Deir ez-Zor on Tuesday, Pentagon officers confirmed on Thursday.
The incident concerned suspected pro-Syrian authorities forces firing rockets and mortars towards US troops within the neighborhood of the bottom. The US army additionally launched strikes in response to what protection officers mentioned was an “an imminent menace” posed by these weapon programs, the Pentagon mentioned earlier this week, however it stays unclear which facet fired first.
US drones struck and destroyed mortars, three MLRS artillery vehicles and a T-64 tank, army officers mentioned Tuesday.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder on Thursday underscored as soon as once more that the US strikes have been made in self-defense. “Our forces in that area have been threatened. We took motion to mitigate that menace, and we’ll achieve this once more,” he instructed reporters throughout a press briefing.
The Pentagon has sought to distance the change of fireplace from the DMC’s close by floor incursion, which appeared geared toward ousting pro-Assad regime forces from close by villages across the city of Khashm.
“This location has been used up to now by teams like Iranian-backed militias to focus on US forces at MSS Euphrates,” Ryder acknowledged on Thursday.
Ryder denied throughout Thursday’s press briefing that US troops within the space had been concerned in any “mixed arms maneuver with the SDF” when incident occurred. However he would neither deny nor affirm whether or not they had supported the SDF floor operation in different methods.
Al-Monitor beforehand reported the US-led coalition in Syria had coordinated with the SDF on the operation and offered help throughout its execution.
“Definitely, they convey with the SDF on a frequent foundation, as companions do,” Ryder instructed reporters on Thursday. “We’re conscious of what the SDF is doing. I am not going to speak about SDF operations.”
The troops have been being evaluated in Syria and haven’t been evacuated from the nation, US officers mentioned. Ryder and different officers cautioned, nonetheless, that the variety of troopers evaluated for TBI might rise as a result of latent nature of signs for concussive accidents.
The incident was circuitously linked to an ongoing Syrian insurgent offensive on the opposite facet of the nation in Aleppo and Hama, protection officers mentioned.
