Fighting Between U.S. and Iran-backed Militias Escalates in Syria

Militias backed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards force attacked a U.S. military base in southern Syria with drones recently and on the same day, a different base used by the U.S.-led coalition near Syria’s eastern border with Iraq came under rocket fire.

U.S. officials saw the back-to-back strikes on Aug.15 as more sophisticated than previous attacks and feared that more were coming.

That set off a string of tit-for-tat attacks this week, including US airstrikes on three consecutive nights against Iran-linked targets in Syria.

The Americans made clear to Iran, through private channels as well as publicly, that they were not trying to escalate hostilities but only sought to protect U.S. interests, said a US official.

The drone attack, on the U.S. base at al-Tanf, near the border in south Syria, came a day after Israel struck military targets in the Syrian provinces of Damascus and Tartus, killing three Syrian soldiers.

Those strikes targeted a Syrian army air defence base where Iran-backed fighters are often stationed, according to the British-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The new fighting comes at a very delicate moment in the US - Iran relations, as both sides are moving closer to agreeing on a revived nuclear deal that would lift sanctions on Iran in return for limits on its nuclear activities.

Given that, any attacks that cause a large number of casualties on either side risk throwing the nuclear negotiations off course.