IS behind fresh suicide bombing against U.S. forces in northern Syria

DAMASCUS, JAN 21 — The Islamic State (IS) is behind the suicide bombing that targeted a U.S. military patrol in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah earlier on Monday, a war monitor reported.

It was the second suicide bombing that targets U.S. forces within a few days in the Kurdish-controlled areas in northern and northeastern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Two U.S. soldiers were wounded in the bombing and five of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces were killed when the IS suicide bomber detonated his car in the southern countryside of Hasakah.

The area where the blast rocked had been under the IS control before the Kurdish-led militia captured it in late 2018 with the help of the U.S.-led coalition.

On Jan. 16, four U.S. soldiers were reportedly killed in a blast targeting a military convoy in the Kurdish-controlled Manbij city in northern Syria.

At the time, the IS was said to be behind the blast.
The U.S. has a military presence in Syria, mainly in Kurdish-controlled areas in northern and northeastern Syria.

The U.S.-led coalition is engaged in an operation to drive out the IS militants from their last stronghold in the eastern Euphrates region in eastern Syria.
The U.S. President Donald Trump said in December 2018 that he decided to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria. – XINHUA