Helicopter crash in Syria leaves 22 soldiers injured

A helicopter crash in northeastern Syria left 22 US soldiers injured over the weekend, the US military said Tuesday.

The cause of the accident is being investigated, added the Army, which said there was no enemy fire.

The soldiers were being treated and 10 of them were transferred to “more advanced facilities” outside the region, the statement added.

“A helicopter crash in northeastern Syria resulted in varying degrees of injury to 22 US soldiers,” the note said. “No enemy fire was reported.”

A spokesman for the Washington-backed Syrian Kurdish forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

There are an average of at least 900 US troops in Syria, plus an undisclosed number of contractors. Special operations forces enter and leave the country, but they tend to be small groups and are not included in the official count.

US forces have been in Syria since 2015 to advise and assist the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in their fight against the Islamic State extremist group.

Since the defeat of the militia in the country in March 2019, US troops have tried to prevent the reappearance of IS, which in 2014 seized control of large areas in Iraq and Syria.

But the group’s cells continue to pose a threat. In addition, there are about 10,000 fighters in detention centers in Syria and tens of thousands of relatives live in two refugee camps in the northeast of the country.

In recent years, US forces have come under attack by IS members and Iranian-backed fighters.

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