An unknown airstrike believed to be conducted by the US-led coalition, on the military sites of Iraqi and Iranian militias in the city of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, after one UK soldier and two Americans were killed in a rocket attack on the Iraqi military base of Taji, north of Bagdad.
Unidentified perpetrators carried out yesterday, 11 March, the 22nd attack on US interests in Iraq, with 18 “Katyusha” missiles, on the military base of Taji, that houses coalition troops, according to AFP News Agency.
After two hours of the rocket attack on the Taji airbase, an unidentified aerial bombardment believed to be affiliated to the International Coalition forces has been launched on several military camps of Iraqi and Iranian militias near the Syrian-Iraqi borders in the city of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria. Nevertheless, the International Coalition has made no comments on the attack.
Russian Today (RT), a Russian international television network funded by the Russian government, quoted unnamed sources in the Popular Mobilization Forces (al-hashed al-sha’abi/ PMF), as saying that the airstrikes targeted Hezbollah Brigades, al-Najaba Brigades, the Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (the Battalion of the Sayyid’s Martyrs/ KSS) and Heydriyun Brigades.
According to the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,” 26 members of the “Iraqi PMF” were reportedly killed in a bombing on its military camps in eastern Syria.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the (Taji) military base, but the US usually accuses militia factions loyal to Iran of carrying out similar attacks.
Several militia factions loyal to Iran have been deployed in the Albukamal region near the border with Iraq, which is considered the primary way for the transfer of fighters of different nationalities (Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani, and Iranian) loyal to Iran, to fight alongside the regime forces.
Al-Bukamal: Iranian foot on the Mediterranean Road
Among the most prominent of these factions are the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Iraqi al-Najaba Brigades, the Lebanese “Hezbollah,” the Fatimiyoun Brigade, and “Zainabiyoun,” and the “Band 313.”
All the factions mentioned above have reportedly been targeted several times by airstrikes of Israel and the US.
An airstrike in 2019 destroyed a complex of Iranian militias in the city of Abu Kamal.
The deadliest attack, according to the AFP News Agency, was in June 2018, when 55 pro-government regime fighters, including Syrians and Iraqis, were killed in airstrikes that a US official said that Israel was behind.