Iraqi Units Open Fire at US Jets Operating over Syrian Desert

An amateur video released by a fighter of the Badr Movement, an Iraqi contingent, showed that the Iraqi pro-government forces opened heavy fire at the coalition’s fighter jet.

The Badr Movement operates alongside the Syrian Army, Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), 313 Forces (Syrian militia), the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Harakat al-Abdal (Iraqi paramilitary), Kata’ib al-Imam Ali (Iraqi paramilitary), Kata’ib Hezbollah (Iraqi paramilitary) along the Damascus-Baghdad highway.

A report said on Friday that the Syrian Army sent a large number of fresh forces to the Damascus-Baghdad highway in the Southern part of the country to reinforce contingents bombed by the United States Air Force on Thursday.

The newly arrived reinforcements would spearhead a drive towards the al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq alongside the National Defense Forces (NDF), the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Imam Al-Ali Battalions (Iraqi paramilitary) and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (Syrian paramilitary), AMN reported.

However, government forces must stiffen their salient East of Damascus and deploy anti-aircraft units if they were to avoid renewed attacks from US jets and US-trained Free Syrian Army (FSA) proxies lurking in the vast Syrian desert.

Meanwhile, the army units were also advancing against FSA militants in Eastern Sweida, capturing a large swath of rural territory on Thursday.

Over 100 Syrian soldiers were killed by US airstrikes, mostly at Deir Ezzur, over the 12 months.