Rockets Hit Base Housing US Troops in Eastern Syria

US Central Command said there were no casualties

US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Wednesday said two rockets were fired at a base in eastern Syria housing US troops earlier in the day and reported there were no casualties in the incident.

The attack took place at Mission Support Site Conoco, a US base next to the Conoco gas fields in eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor province. As part of its occupation of Syria, the US and Kurdish allies control most of the country’s oil and gas resources.

CENTCOM said that the US-backed Kurdish-led SDF found the site from where the rockets were fired and found a third that was unfired. The command did not attribute blame for the attack.

US bases in Syria frequently come under fire, and while there are rarely casualties, the US presence always risks sparking a wider war. There are currently about 1,000 US troops stationed in the country nominally to fight ISIS, but the occupation is also part of the US economic war against Syria.

The US maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria that are harming civilians and specifically target the country’s energy and construction sectors to prevent reconstruction.

But more countries in the region are starting to accept that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad isn’t going anywhere, including Turkey. Syria and Turkey’s defense ministers recently met for the first time since 2011.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.