Twenty-two US troops were injured in a helicopter “mishap” in northeast Syria on Sunday, the Pentagon’s Middle East headquarters revealed on Tuesday.
The military evacuated 10 of the 22 injured US troops to “higher care facilities” outside of the Middle East for medical treatment, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM).
It remains unclear what caused the accident, but CENTCOM said no “enemy fire” was reported to have been involved.
Why it matters: All of the injured personnel were onboard an H-47 variant helicopter for a mission, a US official speaking not for attribution told Al-Monitor. But the nature of the operation and the specific forces involved remains unclear.
More than four years after the Islamic State (IS) was wiped off the battlefield and driven underground, the United States retains roughly 900 troops in Syria and some 2,500 in Iraq in support of local forces to prevent the terror organization’s return.
American troops regularly accompany Syrian Kurdish fighters on partnered raids against suspected IS operatives in northeast Syria.
The pace of such missions has picked up over the past year, with US forces conducting 17 “partnered operations” with Syrian fighters in the month of May alone.
Know more: The prolonged US presence in Syria is not without risks.
Four US troops and a working dog were wounded in February when an IS official triggered an explosion during a raid on his hideout.
The Pentagon has accused Iran-backed militia factions of launching several dozen rocket and drone attacks on US troop positions in recent years.
Such attacks are typically small-scale, but have killed American personnel in the past, leading the Biden administration to authorize retaliatory airstrikes targeting the militias and facilities they use on at least four occasions.
In March, Biden authorized strikes that killed at least eight militia fighters after an Iranian-made drone killed a US contractor and wounded other troops at a base near Hasakah.
Russian military forces supporting the Syrian regime in Damascus have also been increasingly harassing American forces in recent months, violating agreements with the US military, officials have said.
Armed Russian fighter and ground attack aircraft have been flying low over US bases in Syria, particularly al-Tanf garrison near the Jordanian border, without prior notification since late last year.
What’s next: Pentagon officials say US troops will remain in Syria for the foreseeable future.
The Biden administration has focused on diplomatic efforts to repatriate foreign IS prisoners to their home countries in a bid to reduce pressure on the Syrian Kurdish forces guarding them.
More than 50,000 people displaced from the 2019 collapse of IS’ self-styled caliphate remain in detention camps in northeast Syria, in addition to an estimated 10,000 captured IS fighters.
Northeast Syria’s self-styled autonomous administration has long called international support to hold war crimes’ tribunals, to no avail.
The autonomous administration claimed in an announcement over the weekend it would conduct trials for remaining IS detainees.
