Drones, Likely Israeli, Attack Militia Sites on Iraq-Syria Border

A fleet of drones of as-yet-unidentified origin have carried out attacks on Shi’ite militia targets along the Syria-Iraq border. The early reports from Iraq were that the casualties were only on the Syrian side.

The militias in question are holdovers from the ISIS war, anti-ISIS forces that fought on both sides of the border. The US is hostile to the militia, but was quick to deny involvement in the attack. Israel has commonly launched attacks in this area, and there is ample speculation that they are the culprit.

Media reports, particularly Israeli reports, try to spin these militias as Iranian, even though in practice they are nearly all based in Iraq. Apart from increasingly rare engagements against ISIS, the groups are mostly targeted by Israel and/or the US.

Its difficult to conclude Israel was indeed involved, since their policy is not to comment on such attacks. This might mean the strike remains a mystery until some Israeli official decides to break policy and brag about it in the press.