US Company Signs Deal for Syrian Oil

A drone strike targeted a U.S. base in Syria on Wednesday, the same day as the attempted drone attacks in Iraq, Fox News has learned. A U.S. defense official told Fox News that an undisclosed number of drones targeted the U.S. Al-Tanf base, located near Syria’s shared border with Iraq and Jordan.  Lebanon's Iran-aligned Al Mayadeen TV reported on Thursday that two U.S. military bases in Syria came under attack, Reuters reported. In addition to the drone attack on the Al-Tanf base, Al Mayadeen TV reported a missile targeted the Conoco base in the countryside of the northern Deir al-Zor region...

Syrian opposition activists say a drone attack has been conducted on an oil facility in eastern Syria housing American troops and a US base in a nearby area. There was no immediate word on casualties and the US military didn’t immediately respond to requests for confirmation...

U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked with drones or rockets at least 13 times over the past week, Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said Tuesday, confirming earlier VOA reporting. Responding to a question from VOA, Ryder blamed Iranian-backed proxies for the near daily attacks on U.S. forces...

Israeli strikes hit Syria's Aleppo airport on Wednesday, a war monitor said, in what was the fourth such incident in two weeks as regional tensions simmer over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. "Israel renewed its air aggressions on Syria... bombing Aleppo International Airport on Wednesday afternoon," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said...

The Middle East has long been defined by complex conflicts, yet pride of place is likely Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. U.S. forces, operating there since 2014, officially against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are involved in one of the more perplexing elements of that conflict.

The long-standing debate within and outside of recent administrations over whether those forces should remain has gained new life with the Iranian-backed militia attack on Tower 22, a support base in Jordan for U.S. Syria forces operating just over the border. Following that attack, Thanassis Cambanis, writing in these pages, urged that those forces all be withdrawn from Syria. Unlike others who advocate for withdrawal, he recognizes the continued threat from ISIL, but he discounts fully the other geostrategic purpose for the force presence: contesting Iran...

The United States has no immediate plans to fully withdraw its remaining forces in Syria, explained a high-ranking State Department official in a wide-ranging interview that covered a multitude of issues at the forefront President Joe Biden’s portfolio for Syria and Kurdish-led forces in the country. “We are planning to continue and complete our mission,” US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (DAS) for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan A. Goldrich said on Wednesday...