US strikes on eastern Syria kill at least five Iran-backed militia

United States strikes on eastern Syria near the border with Iraq killed at least five Iran-backed militia fighters, a war monitor reported yesterday.

Five Iran-backed Iraqi militia fighters were killed and several others were wounded in an attack by US warplanes on the Syrian side of the frontier, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to collect information, said that military positions were among the targets hit.

Syria’s state-run news agency said, one child had been killed, and that at least three more people were wounded.

The



strikes, confirmed by the Pentagon in a statement, mark the second such US attack on Iran-backed militias in Syria since President Joe Biden took office.

They targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq, the Pentagon said in a statement.

In February, US strikes on facilities in east Syria used by Iran-backed militia groups left more than 20 fighters dead, according to the Observatory.

The Pentagon said, the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops.