Mortar fired near US base in eastern Syria - report

The incident is the latest attack on US forces in Iraq and Syria.

Shi'ite fighters from Mahdi Army launch rockets during heavy fighting against Islamic state members at Bo Hassan village, near Tikrit in northern Iraq. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Shi'ite fighters from Mahdi Army launch rockets during heavy fighting against Islamic state members at Bo Hassan village, near Tikrit in northern Iraq.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
An explosion believed to have been caused by a mortar shell was heard near the east-Syrian Conoco gas field where US forces are located in the Deir Ezzor region on Saturday night, according to Syrian reports.
Syrian state news agency SANA initially reported the explosion, with local news source Deir Ezzor 24 reporting that the explosion was believed to have been caused by a mortar shell and that sirens were heard in the area.
A US defense official later told Reuters that US forces in the Conoco gas fields in eastern Syria took indirect fire on Saturday, but initial reports did not indicate any casualties or damage.
This incident is the latest in a recent round of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria.
On Thursday, two rockets were fired towards the US Embassy in Baghdad. On Tuesday evening, an attack was reported on the Erbil International Airport in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. And, a day before, a drone attack targeted the US embassy in Baghdad.
US President Joe Biden ordered air strikes on pro-Iran militias in Syria in late June in response to a drone attack near Erbil that struck close to the site of the US consulate. The militias vowed to respond and fired a salvo at US forces in Syria near the Omar oil field.
Seth J. Frantzman and Reuters contributed to this report.