Drones attack Syrian base of US-led coalition

BEIRUT — Drones attacked a Syrian outpost of the US-led anti-extremist coalition on Monday but there were no injuries, the coalition said.

Coalition forces "responded to an attack by multiple unmanned aerial systems in the vicinity of Al Tanf Garrison at approximately 6:30 am [03:30 GMT]," a coalition statement said.

They intercepted one drone while another exploded without causing injuries or damage within a compound of Maghawir Al Thawra, a rebel group supported by Washington, the statement said.

Other attempted strikes "were not successful", it added, without specifying who it suspected of carrying out the attack.

Iran-backed forces are deployed in close proximity to Al Tanf, a desert garrison in southern Syria, on the strategically important Baghdad-Damascus highway, near the Syrian border with Iraq and Jordan.

The coalition has disrupted several similar attacks in the past, including against the Al Tanf outpost established in 2016.

Hundreds of American troops are deployed in Syria's northeast as part of the coalition focused on fighting remnants of the Daesh terror group.

The extremists conquered swathes of Iraq and Syria, declaring their "caliphate" in 2014. Five years later they lost their last scrap of territory to local coalition-backed forces in Syria.

In December last year, the Pentagon said a British fighter jet shot down a drone that threatened Al Tanf.