Attack on Syrian US base kills Kurdish fighters as regional tension simmers

At least six US-backed Kurdish fighters have been killed in a drone strike on a US base in eastern Syria claimed by Iranian-backed militia that on Friday was the target of US airstrikes.

The deaths are the latest indicator of how conflict is seeping across the Middle East since the beginning of the war in Gaza, with ever less predictable consequences for regional stability.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have fought Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria, said six of their fighters were killed in an attack on their commando academy at a US base at al-Omar oilfield in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province.

A further 18 were wounded. A UK-based monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, put the death toll at seven.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), among the subjects of a US-led attack last week in reprisal for its killing of three US soldiers in a drone strike on a US base in Jordan, said it was responsible. The group is a loose alliance of pro-Iran fighters opposed to US presence in Syria and Iraq.

Al-Omar is the largest base in Syria of a US-led coalition including the SDF that was set up in 2014 to beat back IS after the Sunni jihadists captured swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

US forces on Sunday said they had destroyed four anti-ship cruise missiles being prepared to be launched by Houthi fighters. Hussein al-Ezzi, the deputy foreign minister for the Houthi administration based in Sana’a, claimed the Houthis were not firing at commercial shipping in general, but only Israeli ships or US naval forces protecting Israeli shipping.

The Houthis also said Italy would become a target if it took part in attacks against Yemen after Italy said on Friday it would provide the admiral in command of a EU Red Sea naval mission it had joined to protect ships from attacks by the militia.

The mandate of the mission, to be launched in mid-February, will be to protect commercial ships and intercept attacks, but not take part in strikes against the Houthis, according to the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.

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