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U.S. Special Forces Kill ISIS Fighters, Repel Attack in Syria

Two US military officials confirm that US military Special Forces helped repel an ISIS attack on a military base in southern Syria on Saturday.
Image:
The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea on April 7. The United States blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles.Ford Williams / U.S. Navy via AP

U.S. Special Forces helped repel an ISIS attack on a military base in southern Syria on Saturday and killed all the ISIS fighters, two U.S. military officials confirmed.

ISIS attacked an entry gate at the Al Tanf garrison with a vehicle-borne IED, followed by 20 to 30 ISIS fighters, some wearing suicide vests.

At the time of the attack, there were American military forces at the base, as well as others nearby on patrol. They all responded, along with other coalition members and Syrian opposition forces, with direct fire and airstrikes.

All of the ISIS fighters were killed and there were no American casualties.

"The enemy got crushed," one US military official said.

The site of the attempted attack, near the border with Jordan, is a coalition base that the US operates out of while partnering with and training the vetted Syrian opposition.

The United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase near the city of Homs last week in response to what it believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 100 people.