BEIRUT, July 17 (Reuters) – Iran struck eastern Syria on Friday, Iranian state media and a Syrian military source said, in the first known attack by Tehran on Syrian territory since a regional war erupted earlier this year.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked a U.S. special operations command centre at al-Tanf in Syria in retaliation for the killing of Iranian soldiers in Iranshahr, state media reported.
Reuters could not independently verify the claim. A Syrian military source told Reuters that Iran had carried out an attack near Tanf but that it had not hit the base itself. The source said there were no casualties or material damage.
The U.S. military said in February it had completed a withdrawal from the al-Tanf base positioned at the tri-border confluence of Syria, Jordan and Iraq.
Syria has sought to avoid being drawn into the regional conflict that has engulfed neighbouring countries, including Lebanon, where Hezbollah has fought Israeli forces, and Iraq, where Iran-backed armed groups have launched drone and rocket attacks.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in March that his country would stay out of any conflict unless it came under attack.
“Unless Syria is targeted by any party, Syria will remain outside any conflict,” Sharaa said at an event hosted by the Chatham House think tank in London.
The Guards also said Iran retained full control of the Strait of Hormuz and that no oil or gas would be exported through the waterway for as long as U.S. attacks continued, according to the state media report.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Editing by Jamie Freed and Gareth Jones)
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