WASHINGTON:The US believes its latest airstrikes on Sunday against Iran-linked militia in Syria killed up to seven people, a US official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose the assessment.
The deaths would be the first since the US started carrying out retaliatory strikes in the past month against militia who Washington blames for attacking American troops at bases in Iraq and Syria. The other strikes have hit unoccupied facilities, including for storage of weaponry.
US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 55 times in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, injuring 59 personnel, though all have returned to duty.
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The US official said the people were killed during one of the strikes on the training facility near the city of Al Bukamal.
Statements, purportedly from the militant groups responsible, have said the assaults are in response to US support for Israel in the war in Gaza. The US official said the people were killed during one of the strikes on the training facility near the city of Al Bukamal.
A second strike that the Pentagon says was carried out at a safe house near the city of Mayadeen may have killed an additional person, the official said.
The US military assesses that no women or children were killed in the strikes, the official said.
At the Pentagon, spokesperson Sabrina Singh said an assessment was ongoing. “We are aware that there were IRGC affiliated members in the proximity of the facilities that were struck by our aircraft. But I don’t have more on casualty numbers or anything else to read out,” Singh told reporters, using an acronym for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
