A force that has been the backbone of the US-led campaign against Islamic State said additional air defences should be deployed in northeast Syria after six of its fighters were killed in a drone attack it blamed on pro-Iran factions.
Mazloum Abdi, commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, said his force considered it “a dangerous development when our camps are targeted in drone attacks by factions backed by Iran.”
Abdi’s remarks to Reuters from northeast Syria suggest the force’s fighters -- deployed alongside US troops to fight remnants of Islamic State - are increasingly vulnerable to widening regional instability in the aftermath of the attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas.
Bases across Syria’s east and northeast hosting US troops and SDF fighters have faced a slew of drone and rocket attacks as pro-Iran militias declaring support for the Palestinians seek to attack US and Western interests and fight Israel.
