A U.S. M142 HIMARS systme firing during the coalition’s rehearsal in Syria’s Deir Ezzor. U.S. Army photo.
The United States has deployed M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) in northeastern Syria, the Anadolu Agency reported on May 30, citing local sources in the region.
The system “was sent to the American bases in al-Omar oil fields and the Conoco gas plant” in the southeastern Deir Ezzor countryside, the sources told the Turkish state-run news agency.
According to the source, the deployment of the systems “aims to confront possible attacks by Iran-backed groups on the opposite bank of the Euphrates River.” Al-Omar and Conoco bases were targeted with rockets and suicide drones on several occasions earlier this year.
The U.S. maintains some 900 troops in Syria under the pretext of fighting ISIS. Most of them are deployed at key oil and gas fields in the country’s northeastern region, where they operate with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The remaining troops are deployed at a garrison in the southeastern area of al-Tanf that blocks the strategic Damascus-Baghdad highway.
Click to see full-size image.
The HIMARS system can launch ER-MLRS unguided rockets with a range of 45 kilometers, GMLRS precision-guided rockets with a range of 70 kilometers and the MGM-140 ATACMS tactical ballistic missile that has a range of up to 300 kilometers.
The deployment of the system in northeastern Syria is neither new or a secret. Last October, the U.S.-led coalition announced that its forces in the region had conducted an operational rehearsal with HIMARS launchers. However, it didn’t specify at the time where exactly the drill was held.
Previously, several HIMARS launchers were spotted in the coalition’s al-Tanf garrison where they took part in several live-fire exercises.
The Anadolu Agency’s report indicates that the U.S. may have deployed additional HIMARS systems in northeastern Syria. This shows how Washington is working to expand its military presence in the country, in spite of the objection of the legitimate government in Damascus.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC:
don’t care. come talk to me when syria, iran , or russia has the balls to go blow it up.
that’s the strange thing iran had the balls to destroy that al asad base with ballistic missiles in iraq, why not this? i mean what are the us gangsters going to do invade syria lol!
mentally disturbed muslims live in the area and they rather fight among themselves to worship their imaginary god properly.
atheist are doing the same but they don’t show it
i wish you were infront of me so i could rape you lucifer eat my shit
are you gay?
russia and syria should have destroyed those oil fields a long time ago and those american gangsters with it.
the sdf could redeem themselves and take those us assets and hand them back to syria.
typical american thinking. keep doing what has failed before, if you keep doing it over and over at some point it will work?
turkey, iran, muslim brotherhood and shia groups are cooperating together in the middle east. that’s why many europeans want the regime of damascus to win because it attacks mb and keeps hezbollah in line.
– we deployed weapons in syria :)
– it’s to defend syrian territorial integrity and independence right ?
– …
– it’s to defend syrian territorial integrity and independence right ?
it is nice of the us to protect its troops’ lives with a compromised and ineffective system that it demonstrated to the russians and allowed them to defeat. the us will have high losses in all future conflicts
toto br osn nevidí? prečo nič nerobia proti okupantom darebáckeho štátu usa? už mali byť dávno uvalené sankcie na usa za to, že neoprávnene okupujú sýriu!!!
more junk from yankland so they can steal syrian oil
ussan mafia thugs and their pentacon goodfellas pillaging syria and anywhere else they can to keep the ussan oligarch filth in power in slumville….my oh my in fewer than 3 centuries anglozionazi euro trash plundered a once pristine continent and spread its vermin and cancer across the planet. thank god that the dragon and the bear are now destroying this contagion.