US Vows to Protect Personnel in Syria after Deadly Attack

A view of the al-Tanf base in Syria. (Reuters file photo)
A view of the al-Tanf base in Syria. (Reuters file photo)
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US Vows to Protect Personnel in Syria after Deadly Attack

A view of the al-Tanf base in Syria. (Reuters file photo)
A view of the al-Tanf base in Syria. (Reuters file photo)

The United States on Friday said it would protect its personnel in Syria after the US military carried out air strikes against Iran-backed forces in retaliation for an attack that killed an American contractor and wounded five US troops.

Just a day after the deadly attack on US personnel in Syria, which Washington blamed on a drone of Iranian origin, sources said a US base in Syria's northeast was targeted with a new missile attack. US officials said there were no US casualties in the incident on Friday.

The latest violence could further aggravate already strained relations between Washington and Tehran amid stalled efforts to revive a nuclear deal and Iran's military support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We're going to work to protect our people and our facilities as best we can. It's a dangerous environment," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on CNN.

Although US forces stationed in Syria have been targeted by drones before, fatalities are rare.

The Pentagon said the US strikes by F-15 jets on Thursday targeted facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war in Syria, said the US strikes had killed eight pro-Iranian fighters in Syria.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the toll.

Iran's state Press TV, which said no Iranian had been killed in the attack, quoted local sources as denying the target was an Iran-aligned military post, but that a rural development center and a grain center near a military airport had been hit.

"We will always take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing," US Army General Erik Kurilla, who oversees American troops in the Middle East, said in a statement.

The US strikes were in response to an attack earlier on Thursday by a drone against US personnel at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria.

Three service members and a contractor required medical evacuation to Iraq, where the US-led coalition battling the remnants of ISIS has medical facilities, the Pentagon said.

The other two wounded American troops were treated at the base, it said.

On Friday, the Pentagon said the injured personnel were in stable condition.

New attack ‘ineffective’

A US base at the Al-Omar oil field in Syria was targeted with a missile attack on Friday morning, according to Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen and a security source.

Kirby said that attack was ineffective and there were no US casualties.

It is not uncommon for Iranian-backed groups to lob missiles at US bases in Syria after they are hit with airstrikes.

US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration's campaign against ISIS, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. About 900 US troops are in Syria, most of them in the eastern party of the country.

US troops have come under attack by Iranian-backed groups about 78 times since the beginning of 2021, according to the US military.

The US deployment, which former President Donald Trump nearly ended in 2018 before softening his withdrawal plans, is a remnant of the larger global war against terrorism that had once included the war in Afghanistan and a far larger US military deployment to Iraq.

While ISIS has lost the swathes of Syria and Iraq it ruled over in 2014, sleeper cells still carry out hit-and-run attacks in desolate areas where neither the US-led coalition nor the Syrian army exert full control.



Hamas Leadership Operating behind Veil of Secrecy

Members of the Hamas group stand guard near a stage before releasing an Israeli hostage. Bashar TALEB / AFP
Members of the Hamas group stand guard near a stage before releasing an Israeli hostage. Bashar TALEB / AFP
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Hamas Leadership Operating behind Veil of Secrecy

Members of the Hamas group stand guard near a stage before releasing an Israeli hostage. Bashar TALEB / AFP
Members of the Hamas group stand guard near a stage before releasing an Israeli hostage. Bashar TALEB / AFP

After Israel killed a string of its leaders, Hamas anointed new commanders to top ranks, this time shrouding their identities in secrecy to protect them from assassination.

Israel vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack, launching a blistering offensive in Gaza that has massively weakened the movement while reducing much of the territory to rubble.

Hamas's political chief Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its armed wing Mohammed Deif, and Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7 attack, have all been killed, as have a string of other commanders and political figures.

Yet unlike its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, whose cult of personality around its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah was a key pillar of its identity, Hamas has placed less of an emphasis on its top ranks.

The group has remained tight-lipped over the names of its top ranks, particularly the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades.

"The name of the head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades will remain a secret," said a source close to Hamas's armed wing.

Researchers say it is likely that the role was inherited by Yahya Sinwar's younger brother Mohammed, whom Hamas put in charge of the hostages taken into Gaza in 2023.

"Yahya Sinwar's personality was rather unique" and militants viewed him as a "hero", said Laetitia Bucaille, who teaches political sociology at the INALCO institute of Middle East studies in Paris.

Mohammed Sinwar's blood link to the slain commander, coupled with his own experience in the brigades, have conferred upon him an automatic authority, she said.

Collective leadership

Israel vowed after October 7 to eradicate Hamas, and while the movement has suffered staggering losses, it has not been crushed.

According to Yasser Abu Heen, founder of the Gaza-based Safa news agency, the loss of so many of its leaders has impacted Hamas, "but only temporarily".

"These hits do not pose an existential crisis, Hamas has its own way of running its institutions," he said. "Israel will not be able to eradicate it."

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a member of Hamas's political bureau described how it acts as the movement's executive arm, voting on decisions and then taking action.

Political bureau membership is decided by the larger Shura Council, the equivalent of a parliament, he added.

"We will not know the new leaders' names. There's a push to keep their identities secret, and to maintain a collective sense of power," said Leila Seurat of the Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies in Paris.

"This isn't a movement based on a charismatic leadership."

While Hamas has survived thus far, it has yet to make the toughest decision of all concerning its future role in Gaza and in the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

Reduced under daily bombardment, Hamas faces demands not just from Israel but from powers around the world and even from some Palestinians to give up power.

Dissent

The Palestinian Authority has pitched itself as a credible ruling entity for the battered territory.

Within Hamas, discussions are raging on whether to hand over power.

According to sources cited by the Soufan Center in New York: "The internal debate has intensified to the point where some Hamas political leaders have considered breaking with the group's military leaders in Gaza."

Hamas is no stranger to division, with Seurat pointing to crises in the past over a range of issues from the Arab Spring to the movement's alliance with Iran.

But the war with Israel has brought to a head frustration among ordinary Gazans sick of a conflict that has killed many thousands and reduced their territory to rubble.

Musa Abu Marzouk, a leading Hamas figure involved in talks over the ceasefire with Israel, told The New York Times in late February that as far as he was concerned, "if it was expected that what happened would happen, there wouldn't have been October 7".

In March, hundreds of people took to the streets of Gaza, chanting "Out, out, Hamas out!", after a rare call to protest circulated via Telegram.

"Some Palestinians want Hamas to go. Some have always been opposed, while others are just fed up," said Seurat.

Pressure alone will not work, however, because Hamas has no viable competitor, and the people of Gaza simply do not have the means to stand up to it.

"They are still in control," said Bucaille. "While Hamas has been weakened, no one can stand up to it for now."