US base in Syria's Deir ez-Zor hit by rocket fire

Wednesday, 24 August 2022 23:49

A US military base in Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria has been struck by rocket fire, the Iraqi security sources said on Wednesday.

Iran Press/ Middle East: "The US military base in Deir ez-Zor on the border with Iraq came under rocket fire today. Several rockets fell in the vicinity of the base without causing damage," an Iraqi security source confirmed.

The attack did not result in any casualties, the source said.

CENTCOM, the unified combatant command responsible for US military operations in the Middle East, announced earlier that the US warplanes had carried out airstrikes targeting facilities allegedly used by groups affiliated with Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani slammed the US over the strikes on Wednesday, characterizing it as a "terrorist act," and dismissed Washington's claims about the targeted militias' links to Iran.

Iran condemns US attack on Syrians

The United States has been occupying chunks of Syria since 2016. Syrian officials estimate that the US and its Syrian Kurdish allies control some 90 percent of the country's oil resources and some of its richest agricultural lands. Syrian media report regularly on the smuggling of food and oil out of the country via illegal crossing routes into Iraq and the sneaking of convoys of military equipment and supplies in via the same routes.

Unlike the former US President Donald Trump, who openly admitted that US troops were in eastern Syria to "take" and "keep the oil," the Biden administration has kept mum on the US forces' activities in the country and denied allegations that the US is engaged in illegal smuggling activities or that US troops are guarding oil and gas wells. Syrian President Bashar Assad praised Trump in 2019, saying it was good to at least have "an honest enemy" who doesn't cover up US imperialism in Syria with pretty slogans.

Syria, which enjoyed modest self-sufficiency from its oil, gas, and agricultural resources before a foreign-backed civil conflict broke out in 2012, has been forced to depend on Russian and Iranian food and energy assistance amid US and European efforts to smother the country with sanctions and occupation.