Green Berets haul a simulated casualty towards a HH-60 helicopter during a medical evacuation exercise within the 55km deconfliction zone in Syria, May 27, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. William Howard)
On April 7, two American service members were wounded in an indirect fire attack that targeted a base of the US-led coalition in Syria’s northeastern region.
In a now deleted tweet, the coalition’s Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (SOJTF-L) said that the attack hit the Green Village base, which is located in al-Omar oil fields in the southeastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.
“The attack injured two US service members. One was treated and released, while the other is under evaluation for traumatic brain injury. This incident is under investigation,” SOJTF-L said in the deleted tweet, noting that an investigation was launched into the attack.
This was the first confirmed attack on US-led coalition forces in northeastern Syria in more than three months. Kurdish sources blamed the attack on Iranian-backed forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the US-led coalition responded to the attack by shelling positions of Iranian-backed forces in nearby government-held areas in Deir Ezzor. According to the London-based monitoring group, the coalition’s artillery strikes resulted in no losses.
Less than a week earlier, a large explosion rocked the Green Village base. Back then, it was reported that the that US-led coalition carried out a controlled explosion of war remnants in the base.
The US-led coalition has been working to strengthen its security measures in Deir Ezzor for a while now. Very recently, the coalition launched a surveillance blimp from its base in the Conoco gas plant, that is located a few kilometers to the north of al-Omar oil fields.
Earlier this year, several attacks targeted US-led coalition bases in northeastern Syria. Iranian-backed forces were unofficially blamed for most of these attacks, which were carried out with rockets and suicide drones.
