The Pentagon on Monday mentioned 4 “armed Daesh (Islamic State [IS]) fighters” have been killed in an in a single day raid carried out in Syria’s jap Deir ez-Zor province.
“Final night time, there have been two operations performed in al-Busayrah, Syria. One was a partnered operation with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the opposite was a unilateral SDF operation,” Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Jessica McNulty informed Al-Monitor through electronic mail.
“The partnered operation resulted in no detentions and the dying of 4 armed Daesh fighters, one in all whom was carrying a suicide vest,” McNulty wrote, including that the vest was destroyed by coalition forces.
The raid focused “recognized Daesh terrorists accountable for facilitation of weapons and fighters to support ISIS attacks. These terrorists attacked an SDF checkpoint on December 10, 2021,” in accordance with the spokesperson.
The Pentagon’s assertion got here after Syria’s government-run news agency claimed that three civilians have been killed in an operation within the city and that US forces had “kidnapped quite a few the locals.”
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and pro-opposition Euphrates Submit mentioned {that a} native schoolteacher and his two sons have been killed within the raid amid native studies of explosions and gunfire. The SOHR later mentioned a fourth individual had been killed within the operation, which it mentioned focused IS suspects.
The SDF released a statement early Monday saying 5 individuals — “most of whom have been carrying explosive belts” — have been killed after anti-terror items got here underneath hearth throughout a joint raid on a suspected IS cell.
The varied accounts of the incident come amid renewed scrutiny over civilian hurt attributable to the US-led operations in Syria.
A New York Times investigation revealed new particulars yesterday about unfastened oversight of a little-known group of Delta Pressure operatives working airstrike procedures in the course of the top of the warfare towards IS in Syria. Talking throughout a press briefing on Monday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby declined to touch upon the Occasions’ latest report.
America maintains some 900 troops in Syria primarily to help native fighters monitoring down the remnants of IS. That footprint has been decreased from some 2,500 American troops who have been current in the course of the top of the warfare towards the jihadist proto-state.
The Syrian regime underneath President Bashar al-Assad objects to the US navy’s presence and has vowed to retake the remainder of the nation by drive if crucial, a activity extensively seen as insurmountable so long as American and Turkish troops stay on the bottom in elements of the nation.
America and the UN have known as for a political answer to Syria’s battle, which is now in its eleventh yr.
