22 US service members injured in northeastern Syrian helicopter accident, military says
The cause of the accident is currently under investigation.
A northeastern Syrian helicopter accident over the weekend has left 22 U.S. service members injured, the U.S. military reported Tuesday.
Injured service members were receiving treatment, with 10 being moved to "higher care facilities" outside of the Syrian region. The statement, which was released on Twitter by U.S. Central Command, said the cause of the accident is being investigated.
The statement did not indicate where specifically the accident took place, but added that "no enemy fire was reported.”
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There are at least 900 U.S. forces in Syria on average, along with an undisclosed number of contractors. There are also U.S. special operations forces that travel in and out of the country but are not typically included in the official count of forces in Syria.
U.S. forces have been located in Syria since 2015 to advise and assist the Syrian Democratic Forces against the Islamic State, a militant extremist group that controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria starting in 2014. Since the group's defeat in 2019, U.S. troops in Syria have been working to prevent comeback attempts by the Islamic State.
There are currently around 10,000 Islamic State fighters held in detention facilities in Syria that could still pose a threat, with thousands of their family members located in the country’s northeast living in refugee camps.
The helicopter accident comes after U.S. troops have been hit with attacks from Islamic State members and other Iran-backed fighters in the past. In March on a U.S. base in Syria, an American contractor was killed, and another contractor and five American troops were wounded after being attacked by a Iran-linked drone. The U.S. retaliated by launching airstrikes on facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Contributing: Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press and Kate Perez, Paste BN
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