Israel launches air strikes on Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said that they targeted Bottom of Form, an underground facility where rockets are manufactured in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
Rocket fire targeted a US military base in Syria’s eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state media reported on Tuesday.
The targeted base targeted on Monday evening is located in the al-Omar oil field in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, Xinhua news agency quoted the state media report as saying, without providing further details.
Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog group said the attack caused damage and burned cars in the base, without any mention of casualties.
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“U.S. Forces in Syria were attacked by multiple rockets. There are no injuries and damage is being assessed,” Col. Wayne Maratto, a spokesman for the US-led mission in Syria, tweeted.
Maratto later added in a second tweet that, “U.S. Forces in Syria, while under multiple rocket attack, acted in self- defense and conducted counter-battery artillery fire at rocket launching positions.”
The war monitor noted that pro-Iran fighters were behind the rocket fire.
Following the attack, areas under the control of the pro-Iranian fighters in the al-Mayadin city in Deir al-Zour witnessed several explosions, which appeared to be retaliatory shelling from the targeted US base in the al-Omar field, said the Observatory.
On Sunday, the White House said it had directed the military to conduct defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region following a recent spate of attacks against US military facilities and personnel in Iraq.
The exchange of fire comes after the United States carried out a missile strike at 1 a.m. on Monday on pro-Iranian fighters’ positions in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour near the Iraqi border, killing five.
Washington claims that pro-Iran militiamen are responsible for attacks against US positions in Iraq.
U.S. troops in Iraq have come under attack from drone strikes three times in a “little over a month,” General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command said.
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