Iran's large-scale 'retaliation' on US bases and Gulf states overnight included a rare first if confirmed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it conducted a missile or drone attack on an American special operations command center at al-Tanf in Syria on Friday.

The action came after the US bombed Iran for a sixth consecutive night, and while Iranian targets have on several occasions reached into Jordan, it is unprecedented that the Iranians take active aim at sites within Syria.

The IRGC stated the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Iranian soldiers in Iranshahr, in southern Iran.

While the hit on Syria was reported in Reuters based on state media claims, the alleged Tanf strike hasn't been independently verified:

A Syrian military source told Reuters that Iran carried out an attack near al-Tanf, but it had not hit the base itself. There were no casualties or material damage, the source added. 

The episode is the first reported attack on Syria since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February.

And more: "The IRGC statement claimed that a radar system, multiple helicopters, and several US personnel were destroyed in the strike. Reuters reported that it has not yet been able to independently verify these claims."

While it is unprecedented or at least unusual for US bases in Syria to come under direct attack by Iran, Tanf base has on multiple occasions come under attack from Iran-aligned Iraqi paramilitaries, and other hostile actors both within Syria and Iraq.

US troops had long operated out of Tanf to pressure the Assad government as part of the long-running US-backed regime change project.

The US primarily trained the Syrian Free Army (FSA) in that remote desert area - which was an umbrella group of various factions, likely among them jihadists, armed and funded by Washington.

But when Assad was finally ousted in December 2024, replaced by an Al-Qaeda group founder (Jolani/Sharaa), this also put Iranian forces in rapid retreat from the country after an over decade-long proxy war.

Syria's new AQ-linked government has been trying to impress its backers by claiming to bust up Iran-Hezbollah axis arms shipments:

Iran, alongside Russia, had been a close military supporter of the Syrian army, but the Syrian government's collapse - along with the weaking of Hezbollah with the recent Israeli assassination of much of its leadership in Lebanon, caused most Russian and Iranian troops into a hasty and forced withdrawal.