US-led coalition strikes, kills 8 Iranian forces in Syria: monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — At least eight Iranian forces were killed by an US-led international anti-ISIS coalition air strike near the Al Tanf military base, according to a UK-based conflict monitory.

Early on Monday, a column of Iranian forces was targeted in the eastern countryside of Homs province near the Iraq-Jordan-Syria border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported.

Eleven more loyalists to Bashar al-Assad — four Syrians and seven non-Syrians — were injured, reported the Observatory citing reliable sources.

The US-led coalition did not immediately confirm the strikes to Rudaw English. Iran maintains that it is in Syria in an advisory role.


"On Iran, Iran has been put on notice that the continued mischief they've caused around the area, the murder that they have caused, the support from Syria, and what they're doing with Assad..." said US Defense Secretary James Mattis during a press conference at the Pentagon on Friday.

The coalition has a troop presence at the tri-border base where it says it trains local tribal fighters for the ISIS conflict.

There is a de-confliction zone agreed to by the United States and Russia, roughly 55 kilometers around the base.

The coalition has previously targeted Assad loyalists who do not abide by the agreement — most recently in June.