US airstrikes’ aftermath | Tense calm prevails in west Euphrates region, while IRGC orders affiliated militias not to respond to US attacks

On Feb 27, 2021

SOHR activists have monitored tense calm in west Euphrates region, which is under the control of Iranian forces and their proxy Syrian and non-Syrian militias, following yesterday’s strikes by US fighter jets which destroyed positions and recently-established posts near unofficial crossings with Iraq in Al-Bokamal countryside in eastern Deir Ezzor. The US attacks also killed 22 Iranian-backed militiamen and destroyed three trucks carrying ammunition affiliated to the Iraqi Hezbollah, while the trucks were crossing from Iraq to Syria

According to SOHR sources, the situation returned to the way it was before these attacks, despite the redeployment and state of tension which the region experienced immediately after the airstrikes.

Moreover, SOHR sources in the region have confirmed that some Iranian-backed militias on the Euphrates river’s bank desire to respond to the US attacks by shelling US positions and bases on the opposite bank with the missiles they have recently brought into Syria. However, the command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) strictly deterred them from doing so for fear of expected cruel and violent response by US forces.

Yesterday, SOHR activists documented a spike in the number of Iranian-backed militiamen killed in US airstrikes in west Euphrates region. 22 militiamen of the Iraqi Hezbollah and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, mostly of the Iraqi Hezbollah, were killed in the US aerial attacks on their positions and a weapons shipment at the time when it was crossing from Iraq to Syria, via a military crossing near Al-Qa’em crossing in Al-Bokamal area in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. The death toll is expected to rise further as the attack left several militiamen injured, some seriously.

It is worth noting that attack, which took place at 01:00 am Syria time, destroyed three trucks carrying ammunition.

According to SOHR sources the Iranian forces and their proxy factions evacuated several posts and headquarters in Al-Bokamal immediately after the attack, where they were redeployed in other positions for fear of being subjected to successive attacks.