Jan. 16 (UPI) — U.S. troops were among several killed in an attack Wednesday near Syria’s border with Turkey — a bombing claimed by the Islamic State terror group, officials said.
The soldiers died at a busy restaurant in Manbij, a key city in northern Syria patrolled by a U.S.-led coalition. The explosion happened when a suicide bomber approached coalition forces and blew himself up.
Video footage showed an explosion on a busy street and what appeared to be a U.S. helicopter evacuating the wounded. It wasn’t immediately clear how many were killed or how many were U.S. troops.
The Islamic State claimed credit for the attack on its news website Amaq.
Operation Inherent Resolve said in a Twitter post coalition members conducted a “routine patrol” in the area.
“CJTF-OIR is aware of open source reports regarding an explosion in Syria. Coalition forces conducted a routine patrol in Syria today. We are still gathering information and will share additional details at a later time,” OIR wrote.
Manbij is an area that’s patrolled by U.S. troops backing the Syrian Democratic Forces. Wednesday’s attack is the first to include U.S. casualties since President Donald Trump announced a full U.S. withdrawal from Syria.
That announcement led to the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and calls from Republican legislators like U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for Trump to reconsider. Since then, national security adviser John Bolton has said the pullout will be based on conditions that protect Kurdish fighters, who’ve been part of the U.S.-led coalition.
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