US Special Forces repel ISIS attack on base in Syria

[Strikerrr]

[t]https://sofrep.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Al-Tanf.jpg[/t]
[QUOTE]US forces in southern Syria came under attack by Islamic State militants around midnight local time on Saturday, joining with local partner forces to repel the assault in an hours-long fight that required multiple airstrikes and [URL="https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/851480492100726784"]left three[/URL] US-backed Syrian fighters dead.

US special-operations advisers were on the ground near the al-Tanf border crossing when a force of [URL="https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/851472513565642754"]20 to 30 fighters[/URL] with the Islamic State, the terrorist group also known as ISIS or ISIL, attacked in what a US Central Command spokesman called a "[URL="https://www.stripes.com/news/us-forces-help-repel-isis-attack-on-southern-syrian-base-1.462898#.WOzdIlMrJE6"]complex and coordinated[/URL]" attempt to take the base from the coalition.

"US and coalition forces were on the ground in the area as they normally are, and participated in repulsing the attack," said Air Force Col. John J. Thomas, a spokesman for Central Command, [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-backed-syrian-fighters-pressing-is-gunmen-in-north/2017/04/10/cf80186c-1df2-11e7-bb59-a74ccaf1d02f_story.html"]according[/URL] to the Associated Press.

"There was close-air support that was provided, there was ground support that was provided, and there was med-evac that was supported by the coalition," Thomas [URL="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/us-special-ops-troops-aid-syrian-opposition-forces-in-fierce-firefight-with-isis/article/2619856"]added[/URL]. No Americans were killed or wounded.

"Clearly it was planned," [URL="https://www.stripes.com/news/us-forces-help-repel-isis-attack-on-southern-syrian-base-1.462898#.WOzdIlMrJE6"]Thomas told reporters[/URL] at the Pentagon. "The coalition and our partner forces had the resources to repulse that attack. A lot of them wound up being killed and the garrison remains controlled by the people in control before being attacked."

"Ultimately the attackers were killed, defeated, or chased off," [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-backed-syrian-fighters-pressing-is-gunmen-in-north/2017/04/10/cf80186c-1df2-11e7-bb59-a74ccaf1d02f_story.html"]Thomas said[/URL].
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[QUOTE]US forces at al-Tanf, on Syria's southern border with Jordan and Iraq, had [URL="https://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-attack-on-rebel-base-in-syria-sparks-rare-close-battle-1491864724"]initially withdrawn[/URL] to avoid potential retaliatory action after the US strike on an Assad regime airfield in western Syria.

The attack came from ISIS fighters disguised as US-backed rebels, carrying M-16 rifles and using vehicles captured from US-supported rebel groups. They struck first with a car bomb at the base entrance, which allowed some of the attackers to infiltrate the base. Many of the ISIS fighters were wearing [URL="https://www.stripes.com/news/us-forces-help-repel-isis-attack-on-southern-syrian-base-1.462898#.WOzdIlMrJE6"]suicide vests[/URL].

"Around 20 ISIS fighters attacked the base, and suicide bombers blew up the main gate, and clashes took place inside the base," Tlass al-Salama, the commander of the Osoud al Sharqiya Army, part of the US-backed moderate rebel alliance, [URL="https://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-attack-on-rebel-base-in-syria-sparks-rare-close-battle-1491864724"]told The Wall Street Journal[/URL].

Salama's force sent reinforcements to the base, but they came under attack from other ISIS fighters.

US special-operations forces and their Syrian partners who had moved out of the base quickly returned, and they initially repelled the attack on the ground in a firefight that lasted about three hours.

Coalition pilots also [URL="https://www.stripes.com/news/us-forces-help-repel-isis-attack-on-southern-syrian-base-1.462898#.WOzdIlMrJE6"]carried out[/URL] multiple airstrikes amid the fighting, destroying ISIS vehicles and killing many of the terrorist group's fighters.

"It was a serious fight," a US military official [URL="https://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-attack-on-rebel-base-in-syria-sparks-rare-close-battle-1491864724"]said Monday[/URL]. "Whether or not it was a one-off, we will have to see."

US special-operations forces had been [URL="https://www.stripes.com/news/us-forces-help-repel-isis-attack-on-southern-syrian-base-1.462898#.WOzdIlMrJE6"]training vetted Syrian opposition[/URL] troops at al-Tanf for more than a year. The Syrian opposition fighters in question were operating against ISIS in southern Syria and working with Jordan to maintain border security.
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[URL]http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-attack-on-us-troops-at-al-tanf-in-southern-syria-2017-4[/URL]
[URL]http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-special-forces-kill-isis-fighters-repel-attack-syria-n744651[/URL]

[SireNoodle]

Hope there's no more tomahawk strikes

[Thlis]

[QUOTE=Sire Noodles;52111231]Hope there's no more tomahawk strikes[/QUOTE]

Indeed, MOABs would be a better response