US military base in Syria targeted in failed rocket attack
US Central Command says at least four rockets were launched towards the US military’s Green Village base in northeast Syria.
A rocket attack has been launched against the United States military’s Green Village base in northeast Syria, but failed to hit the US or coalition forces and equipment, the US Central Command said.
Three 107-mm (4.2-inch) rockets attacked the base on Sunday and a fourth rocket along with rocket tubes was found at the launch point, about five kilometres (three miles) away, the command said in a statement.
The Green Village base was hit last month during violence between the US military and Iran-backed rebels leaving at least one US military service member in Syria with a minor injury.
The incident triggered a US response that killed two or three fighters conducting the attacks.
The Central Command said it was investigating the latest failed attack, which struck at approximately 7:05pm local time (16:05 GMT) in Syria.
It gave no further details.
In last month’s attack, at least two fighters, described by US Central Command as “suspected Iran-backed militants”, were also killed, in what the US military described as rocket attacks on two facilities.
It said that several rockets landed inside the perimeter of Mission Support Site Conoco in northeast Syria, quickly followed by another near Mission Support Site Green Village, run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Kurdish-led group.
The developments came a day after the US said it had carried out raids in Deir Az Zor, a strategic oil-rich province that borders Iraq, on groups linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
US forces first deployed in Syria during the Obama administration’s campaign against ISIL, partnering with the SDF. There are about 900 US troops in Syria, most of them in the east.
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said last year that US troops have four main objectives in Syria: to reduce violence, maintain military pressure on ISIL (ISIS), address Syria’s humanitarian crisis, and support Israel.
The Syrian government has constantly expressed its opposition to the US role in Syria, and demanded that US forces withdraw.