The scene was a remote corner of northeast Syria contested by American troops, Iranian-backed militias, Syrian regime forces and Isis remnants. The American helicopter gunships and air attacks came on Wednesday in response to an earlier attack by Iranian-backed militias, which was itself in response to an attack on Tuesday by US forces, which was in retaliation for an alleged attack by Iranian-affilate groups on Americans on 15 August, which came in response to an Israeli airstrike elsewhere.
Then, on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on an arms depot in western Syria reportedly destroyed hundreds of alleged Iranian-made missiles stored at the facility, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, leaving at least one person dead. The ensuing fire burned for hours.
All that comes on top of continuing boisterous threats by Turkey to launch a fresh ground invasion of northern Syria on America’s Kurdish-led partners in the fight against Isis.
