US base in Syria attacked by unknown drones.

 

A joint patrol between the US military and local rebels. Newsweek/US Army photo.

The US base in Al-Tanf came under fire from unknown drones. Newsweek. No casualties were reported from the attack and the attack was described as "indirect" fire. The Al-Tanf region is one of the few that remains under the control of rebels opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad and is backed by US and UK forces. The US uses these forces to counter both ISIS and Iran in Syria. It is unclear who is responsible for the attack though both ISIS and Iran backed militias have used drones in the past. If the attackers can be determined it is possible that strikes will be launched in retaliation. 

My Comment:

A concerning development for our troops in Syria. For many it may come as a surprise that we even have troops remaining in Syria. Their operations there usually do not make the news. And there has been little debate if we should keep troops in Syria in the first place. 

In my view we should be pulling those troops out. Syria is a sovereign country and we should not be funding rebels there. Our main reason to be involved in the Syrian Civil War was ISIS and they are no longer much of a threat in the region. I know that Iran is a threat in the region and I agree we should do things to counter them. But I don't think we need troops on the ground to do so. 

Indeed, I seriously doubt that ISIS was responsible for this attack. ISIS has launched drone attacks in the past but that was back when they actually had an empire. Now they are nothing more than a shadow of their former self and are only really active in Afghanistan. Though drone attacks can range from high tech to low tech, I doubt that ISIS is even capable of strapping a grenade to a drone at this point. 

My guess is that this was an attack by an Iranian back militia. They have a large number of drones that they have used in major terror attacks, most notably in the Yemeni conflict. These drones can either be used as suicide strikers or they can launch their own weapons. Some can do both. If I had to put money on this it would be the Iranians and their proxies that were responsible for this attack. There is a small chance that it was ISIS or even the Syrian government themselves, but that seems unlikely at best. 

If it was an Iran backed militia I don't see much choice. We would have to respond in some way. Not just to send a message to the Iranians but to protect our troops. The people responsible for this attack needs a drone strike of their own. But unlike their strike I am guessing there will be casualties.

 I also think that we need better defenses against drones. They are obviously the future of the warfare and though we have developed the use of drones we haven't gotten much in the way defenses against them. Indeed, the reason we didn't have casualties in this fight is because the base was evacuated. That's not a long term solution and we need to think of one soon given the massive threats the US military is facing.