US servicemen lightly wounded, several Iran-backed militias killed in SE Syria

US servicemen lightly wounded, several Iran-backed militias killed in SE Syria
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Three US military soldiers suffered minor injury following rocket attacks in Southeastern Syria by suspected Iran-backed militants and two or three militants were killed in US response

Iran-backed militants staged rocket attacks at two sites in Syria that wounded three American soldiers and U.S helicopters killed two or three militants in response, said the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) which oversees American forces in the Middle East.

Two U.S. military locations near Green Village and the Conoco gas field in Deir el-Zour were hit with rocket fire, hours after a US airstrike hit the infrastructure sites of militants affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. One U.S. service member was treated for a minor injury and has been returned to duty, and two others were under evaluation for minor injuries, CENTCOM said.

U.S. forces responded by destroying three vehicles and equipment used to launch some of the rockets, killing “two or three suspected Iran-backed militants,” according to CENTCOM. 

Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani denied having any link to sites targeted by the United States in Syria but condemned the strikes that were “against the people and infrastructure of Syria.”

The UK based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the U.S. airstrikes targeted a camp run by Shiite Muslim fighters from Afghanistan. The war monitor reported that at least six Syrian and foreign militants were killed in the airstrikes.

The strategic province of Deir ez-Zor bordering Iraq contains oil fields and have also been targeted Israeli Air Force in previous strikes.