Missile attack targets US base in eastern Syria

TEL ABYAD, DAMASCUS/Syria

Iranian-backed groups on Saturday launched a rocket attack on the Koniko Gas Plant, where US forces are stationed in eastern Syria.

According to information obtained from local sources by Anadolu, Iranian-backed groups stationed on the western bank of the Euphrates River in Deir ez-Zor launched a rocket attack on the Koniko Gas Plant.

There was no report on the casualties or damages caused by the attack.

On Thursday, Iranian-backed militias also launched an attack on the American base in the Al-Omar oil field in Syria.

The US began to carry out a wave of airstrikes Friday against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-Quds Force and Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria after a drone attack killed three American troops in Jordan late last month.

The territories of Deir ez-Zor east of the Euphrates River are under the occupation of the US-backed terrorist organization PKK/YPG, while the provincial capital and other rural areas are under the control of the Assad regime and Iranian-backed groups.

The US is allied with the PKK/YPG ostensibly to fight the Daesh/ISIS terror group, while Turkish officials say using one terrorist organization to fight another makes no sense.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is its Syrian branch.

Syrian forces repel Israeli attack targeting posts in Damascus countryside

Meanwhile, Syrian forces repelled an Israeli attack targeting posts in the countryside of Damascus, Syria’s capital, on Saturday, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

“The army air defenses on Saturday repelled an Israeli missile aggression on a number of posts in Damascus countryside and downed a number of the rockets,” the agency reported.

It quoted an unnamed military source saying: “Nearly at 1.05 a.m. (1005GMT) on Saturday dawn, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some sites in Damascus countryside.”

The source added that “the army air defenses confronted the missile aggression, downing a number of the missiles.”

The losses were limited to material damages, the source added.

On Friday, social media accounts close to the Syrian regime reported that Israel carried out air strikes targeting Mezzeh Military Airport and the Sayyidah Zaynab neighborhood in Damascus.

There was no Israeli comment regarding the reports.

Israel has launched attacks from time to time on groups supported by Iran and military points belonging to the regime’s army in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. The Israeli attacks have intensified recently since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip in October.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi