Syrian media: US struck Syrian army positions
May 24, 2018
US-led coalition jets targeted several Syrian army positions in eastern Syria near the front lines with the "Islamic State" group, a Syrian government-run media outlet reported early Thursday.
The Central Military Media said the coalition struck positions between Boukamal and Hmeimeh in the Deir el-Zour province, where Russian-backed Syrian forces and the US-led coalition have been carrying on separate offensives against IS.
The strikes caused only material damage, the state media said, but added there were no casualties.
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The report was backed by a media unit run by Lebanon's Hezbollah group, a military ally of Damascus. The media unit said the strikes were near T2, an energy installation located near the border with Iraq.
US military denies report
US military officials have denied any knowledge of the strikes.
"We have no information to substantiate those reports," Marine Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said in Washington.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported two waves of US-led missile attacks early Thursday but the British war monitor said strikes targeted areas controlled by IS east of the Euphrates River.
It reported that Thursday's strikes had killed some members of a foreign militia supporting the Syrian government.
Officially, the US-led coalition last targeted Syrian government facilities in April, when it retaliated against a suspected gas attack blamed on the Syrian regime.
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ap/kms (Reuters, AP, AFP)