Syria Says US Airstrike Killed Several Soldiers Near Jordan Border

Russia: Airstrike an "Unacceptable' Violation of Sovereignty

Information continues to slowly trickle in related to yesterday‘s US airstrike against a Syrian military convoy in thee nation’s south, with Syrian officials accusing the US of having committed a “massacre” and launching strikes which killed several soldiers. Exact figures were not released.

The US claimed the attack targeted a convoy which had gotten within 55 km of a military base at which US special forces were conducting training exercises. The exact location of the strike is as yet not public knowledge, though the Pentagon insisted that it meant the killings were “defensive in nature.”

The area around the Syria-Iraq-Jordan border, which by all indications is where the strike occurred, is split between Syrian military forces and US-backed rebels. Both are fighting ISIS in the area primarily, though the US presented the Syrian convoy is inherently a threat to American troops.

Russia was critical of the attack, declaring it “unacceptable” and a violation of Syrian territorial sovereignty. Since the US troops didn’t have permission to have a base in Syria in the first place, nor to launch airstrikes inside Syria, that seems a fair point.

The US insists that the attack was not indicative of a change in Syria policy, though it is only the second strike they’ve launched against Syrian military targets throughout the entire war. The previous attack targeted a Syrian air base, with a flurry of cruise missiles.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.