Attack on US-SDF convoy in Syria’s northeastern province kills five: Reports

BEIRUT

An explosion has gone off in Syria’s northeastern province of Hassakeh, inflicting casualties, according to local reports.

The blast was a suicide bombing that targeted a Syrian Kurdish checkpoint near the town of Shaddadeh in the northeastern province of Hasakeh, the Syrian state-run news agency SANA and the Kurdish Hawar news agency reported on Jan. 21.

Five militants from the SDF, an umbrella organization dominated by the YPG, were killed in the attack, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

An American soldier was critically injured, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said in its report based on local sources.

The YPG, deemed by Turkey as an offshoot of the PKK, has been supported by the U.S. in the fight against ISIL. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

A suicide attack had killed 16 people, including four Americans, in the northwestern town of Manbij in Syria on Jan. 16. ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack.