Swarm of suicide drones attacks US army base in Syria in retaliation for Baghdad airstrike

The attack has been linked to the retaliatory US airstrikes against Iranian-aligned groups and their positions.
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US forces set up a new base in Manbij, Syria May 8, 2018(photo credit: REUTERS/RODI SAID)
Explosions have been reported near a US army base in Syria, by the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese media network Al Mayadeen, on Wednesday.

The American base in the Al-Omar oil field in the Kurdish-controlled region of northeastern Syria, close to the city of Deir ez-Zor, American troops have been present here since at least 2017.

The base was attacked by a “swarm of suicide drones” according to Egypt-based Bayan-gate news and is the second attack of its kind this week against US bases in the region.

The attack has been linked to the retaliatory US airstrikes against Iranian-aligned groups and their positions, by Arab media.
The American airstrikes were a response to the three American servicemembers killed at a base in Jordan, near the Syrian border earlier this week.

Retaliating to retaliation

Today’s attack comes only a few hours after a suspected American assassination of a Kataib Hezbollah commander in Baghdad.
Kataib Hezbollah has been closely involved in the current round of escalation with multiple attacks against US positions in the Middle East, they are suspected to have been directly behind the deadly attack in Jordan.

Kataib Hezbollah renounced attacks on American bases after it was revealed they had killed three US servicemembers.

They have been accused of attacking US bases in coordination with other Iran-aligned forces such as Yemen’s Houthis.

Kataib Hezbollah is one of several groups operating in coordination to support Iranian foreign policy goals in Iraq, they operate under the collective title of the “Islamic resistance in Iraq”, with the collective group having launched multiple drone attacks on Israel as well as on American bases in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic Resistance of Iraq has been closely linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which was targeted in American airstrikes.