- Seven civilians died in the attack, while 10 others were wounded
- A member of the US-led military was killed, and another was severely injured
BEIRUT: A blast struck near a US-led coalition patrol in Syria’s
northern city of Manbij on Wednesday, and a war monitor said 14 people
were killed including two Americans.
An Daesh-affiliated web site, Amaq, said an attacker with an explosive
vest had struck a foreign military patrol in a suicide attack.
Reuters could not independently verify a report by the UK-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights that 14 people had been killed in the
attack including two US soldiers. The coalition could not be immediately
reached for comment.
Last month, US President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement that
he would withdraw all 2,000 US troops from Syria after concluding Daesh
had been defeated there. The announcement rattled allies in the region
and top US officials, including Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis who
quit.
Two witnesses described Wednesday’s blast to Reuters. The US-backed,
Kurdish-led Manbij Military Council militia that controls the town said
there was preliminary information that people had been injured in
Wednesday’s attack.
Manbij has been held by US-backed fighters allied to the Kurdish YPG
militia since they took it from Daesh in 2016. It is located near areas
held by Russian-backed Syrian government forces and by anti-Assad
fighters backed by Turkey.
One of the witnesses said there was a “heavy” presence of military
aircraft over Manbij following the blast, which took place near a
vegetable market.