Pentagon officials are staying quiet about a mysterious airstrike Sunday that struck Syrian regime forces near the Iraqi border, insisting the U.S. military didn’t carry out the attack but refusing to offer any clarity on who did.
“I can emphatically tell you it was not the coalition,” said Col. Sean Ryan, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led mission fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“The coalition is concerned about what strikes we conduct. I can’t speak on behalf of … any other country,” he told reporters during a video conference briefing Tuesday morning. “I know we did not make that strike, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Syrian state media immediately blamed the airstrike near the city of Abu Kamal on the U.S. and its allies. More than 50 people were killed in the attack, including Syrian regime forces and members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which are Iranian-backed Shia militias.
The Iraqi force issued a statement Sunday saying a U.S. aircraft had fired on their positions, killing nearly two dozen of their fighters. Iranian media also reportedly carried allegations that the U.S. had been behind the strike.
U.S. officials immediately called those claims “misinformation.”
CNN on Monday quoted U.S. officials saying that Israel carried out the strike, though the Israeli government offered no official comment.
Col. Ryan was asked point-blank by reporters Tuesday whether the U.S. knew if Israel was involved in the attack, but he would not comment.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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