U.S. military forces carried out defensive strikes against Syrian pro-regime forces in Syria this week, according to reports.
A reporter for the state TV station Ikhbariya said there were “dozens of dead and wounded” as a result of the attacks.
Ikhbariya described the groups it said had been bombed by the U.S.-led coalition as “local people fighting [ISIS] and the SDF,” Reuters reported.
“Coalition service members in an advise, assist, and accompany capacity were co-located with SDF partners during the attack eight kilometers east of the agreed-upon Euphrates River de-confliction line,” the statement added.
Some 100 pro-regime forces were killed in the incident, according to the broadcaster.
“We suspect Syrian pro-regime forces were attempting to seize terrain SDF had liberated from [ISIS] in September 2017,” one U.S. official was quoted by the BBC as saying.
Those forces were “likely seeking to seize oilfields in Khusham that had been a major source of revenue for [ISIS] from 2014 to 2017,” that official continued.