LONDON: Iran-backed paramilitaries have been accused of injuring two American soldiers in the shelling of a US Air Force base in Syria.
The Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant said in a subsequently deleted tweet that the Green Village installation housing coalition forces in eastern Syria had been struck.
“The attack injured two US service members, one was treated and released, while the other is under evaluation for traumatic brain injury,” the task force tweeted.
Occurring in an area north of the Euphrates River controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the shelling followed a rocket attack against the Kawergosk oilfield in Iraq.
Images on social media suggest that three Katyusha rockets were fired at the Kawergosk facility, one of which veered off target, striking nearby farmland.
No one has taken responsibility for either of the attacks, with the now-deleted tweet simply stating that the incident is “under investigation.”
But the Wall Street Journal said: “The shelling follows a long-running series of attacks on US forces and local partners in Iraq and Syria carried out by Iran and its allied paramilitary groups in the region.”
It added: “Iran rarely acknowledges any role in the attacks on US forces in the region, but instead provides support to local paramilitary groups that claim to launch drones and missiles.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps admitted that it was responsible for a missile strike on Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital Erbil in March.
The IRGC justified the Erbil attack by claiming the target was a “strategic centre for conspiracy and mischief of the Zionists.” No injuries or fatalities were reported.
