US says 22 soldiers injured in Syria helicopter accident

Enemy fire not reported at time of US helicopter ‘mishap’ in northeastern Syria, where hundreds of US soldiers are stationed.

The US military said a helicopter crash in northeastern Syria injured 22 US servicemen, though no enemy fire was reported at the time of the “accident”.

“The service members are being treated for their injuries and 10 have been evacuated to higher care facilities outside the CENTCOM AOR [US Central Command Area of Responsibility]the US military said in a statement Monday.

An investigation is underway to determine the cause of Sunday’s accident in northeastern Syria, the US central command said in a statement.

The statement added that “no enemy fire had been reported” at the time of the accident.

US forces operating in Syria since 2015 have been subject to sporadic attacks by ISIL (ISIS) fighters and Iranian-backed groups operating in the country.

At least 900 US soldiers are deployed to Syria, along with an unknown number of US military contractors, as part of operations to assist the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against ISIL (ISIS).

In March, the governments of Iran and Syria condemned US forces for carrying out attacks on Syrian soil that reportedly killed 19 people. The allegedly Iranian-made drone killed one US contractor, wounded another and wounded five US soldiers at their base in the northeast of the country near the town of Hassakeh.

The US retaliatory strikes were reportedly carried out by F-15 fighter jets that hit three locations, all near Deir Az Zor, a region of eastern Syria bordering Syria.

In April, US forces said they killed a senior ISIL (ISIS) figure and two other members of the group in a “helicopter strike” in Syria.