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At the least 22 United States service members had been injured in a helicopter “mishap” in Syria over the weekend, the U.S. Central Command mentioned in a quick assertion late Monday.
The accident occurred on Sunday in “northeastern Syria,” it mentioned, and “resulted in accidents of assorted levels” to the personnel. Centcom gave no clarification of how the incident occurred or what operations had been underway within the war-torn Center Jap nation.
“The service members are receiving remedy for his or her accidents and 10 have been evacuated to greater care services,” the assertion continued. “The reason for the incident is underneath investigation, though no enemy fireplace was reported,” it added.
A brutal civil warfare has devastated Syria for greater than a decade, forcing hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee and inflicting political turmoil within the area. In 2014, a U.S.-led coalition battled the Islamic State militant group, generally known as ISIS, and largely extinguished its self-declared caliphate, which took over swaths of Iraq and Syria.
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In keeping with a separate Centcom replace earlier this month, U.S. Central Command-led coalition forces and associate forces performed 38 operations towards the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in Might. Eight ISIS “operatives” had been killed in consequence and 31 had been detained, it mentioned.
“Regardless of their degraded functionality, ISIS stays a big risk inside the area,” mentioned Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the Centcom commander. “Centcom, together with our companions, is dedicated to the enduring defeat of ISIS.”
The previous three U.S. administrations have maintained a small contingent of U.S. troops in Syria — about 900 at any given time, augmented by a whole lot extra contractors — to forestall a resurgence by ISIS militants within the nation, thwart Iranian and Russian ambitions and supply leverage for different strategic goals. U.S. administrations have justified the deployment underneath the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Navy Drive, which Congress handed within the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults to struggle al-Qaeda.
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Earlier this month, Kurdish-led authorities, who management a lot of northeastern Syria, mentioned they might put a whole lot of ISIS fighters on trial. Tens of hundreds of international nationals have been languishing in prisons there for allegedly having ties to the Islamic State. Kurdish authorities and detainees’ kinfolk have implored governments to just accept their residents again. Citing safety considerations, many international locations have dragged their ft — or, in some circumstances, revoked detainees’ citizenship.
In the meantime, intelligence officers and leaked categorized paperwork have proven that Iran could also be arming militants in Syria for a brand new part of deadly assaults towards U.S. troops within the nation, The Washington Put up reported earlier this month. Such assaults may represent an escalation of Tehran’s long-running marketing campaign of utilizing proxy militias to launch rocket and drone strikes on U.S. forces in Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was just lately welcomed again into the Center Jap fold, attending an Arab League summit on the invitation of Saudi’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The welcome prolonged to Assad angered many Syrians.
Joby Warrick, Evan Hill and Claire Parker contributed to this report.