Two rockets struck a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria Wednesday following the 3rd anniversary of the killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike in 2020.
Coalition forces at Mission Support Site Conoco were targeted in the attack that occurred around 9 a.m. local time, according to United States Central Command (CENTCOM).
There were no injures or even damage to the base or the coalition’s property.
Troops from the Syrian Democratic Forces Special Operations and the U.S.-led anti-jihadist coalition, take part in heavy-weaponry military exercises in the countryside of Deir Ezzor in northeastern Syria, on March 25, 2022. (DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Attacks of this kind place coalition forces and the civilian populace at risk and undermine the hard-earned stability and security of Syria and the region,” Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for CENTCOM said.
It is unclear how many troops were on the base at the time of the attack, though some 900 U.S. forces are stationed in Syria.
Syrian Democratic Forces visited the site of the rockets origin and found a third unfired rocket.
The attack came one day after the anniversary of Soleimani’s death on Jan. 3, 2020 in Baghdad by a U.S. drone strike.
Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, center, attends Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s meeting with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in Tehran, Iran on Sept. 18, 2016. (Pool / Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Soleimani served as the former head of Iran’s Quds Force in its Revolutionary Guard and gained notoriety for his support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his involvement in proxy wars across the Middle East.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday vowed to avenge Soleimani, who was viewed as a war hero for his involvement in the Iran-Iraq war that ran for eight years beginning in 1980.
“We have not forgotten and will not forget the blood of martyr Soleimani,” Rasi said during a commemoration address, reported Voice of America.
The Iranian president claimed that Soleimani had defeated “U.S. hegemony” before then-President Trump ordered him to be killed.
Raisi on Tuesday warned those behind his death “should know that retaliation is obvious” and said “there will be no relief for murderers and accomplices.”
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