Since last fall US forces have recorded over 100 rocket and drone attacks on their positions in Iraq and Syria by Iran-aligned militias or Syrian national militias, depending on the side of the border. While most of the time these incidents pass without casualties, some observers have long suspected the Pentagon attempts to keep the number of wounded or injured US personnel from these attacks under wraps.
The Pentagon belatedly revealed Tuesday that a total of eight US troops were wounded in a drone attack that struck a US base in northeast Syria last Friday. Spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that all eight were treated for traumatic brain injuries - the common term for potential head injuries when a person is too near a blast - as well as smoke inhalation.
"Three of those service members have returned to duty while the others remain under observation," told a press breifing. "According to CENTCOM (US Central Command), none of the injuries are life-threatening."
It happened at Rumalyn Landing Zone, which is in Hasaka in northeast Syria - for years subject of the US military occupation. While over the weekend the Pentagon acknowledged the attack, saying their were minor injuries, it had withheld details as well as to the number of troops injured.
These attacks have been on the rise of late, as ABC News details:
Since Oct. 18, there have been close to 170 attacks taking place on a nearly daily basis as Iranian-backed militia groups target U.S bases in Iraq and Syria, supposedly in retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war.
Those attacks largely stopped after Feb. 4 following large-scale U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria and a drone strike that killed a top-level leader of the Kataib Hezbollah militia group that the U.S. held responsible for the attacks.
Since the July 31st Israeli killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the region has been on edge in expectation of a major Iranian retaliation on Israel. This has put American troops occupying easter Syria in harm's way, leading many to question what the Pentagon is still doing there.
The Pentagon and mainstream media have meanwhile dusted off the ole 'counter ISIS' mission rationale...
"In a little-publicized campaign, American aircraft conduct airstrikes and provide live aerial surveillance to SDF ground forces who conduct raids on suspected Islamic State cells," WSJ wrote this week. "While they usually stay a safe distance from the fighting, elite U.S. troops sometimes conduct missions on their own to kill or capture senior Islamic State leaders."
This is a recipe for seeking to keep US troops there as part of yet another post-911 era 'forever war' which has no specific and definable aims.
WSJ wrote further that "Islamic State’s latest comeback effort represents a different challenge than the one it posed in its heyday, when hundreds of militants would charge through isolated villages and crowded cities in tanks and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns. Now the group operates in smaller cells armed with rifles and booby traps."
Of course, no one ever asks anymore how the Islamic State got to Syria in the first place, in the context of the Western allies and Gulf axis drive to overthrow Assad.