Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies on February 27 show that the US Air Force’s airstrike two days earlier with 7 guided bombs weighing more than 200 kg from F-15E fighters destroyed most of the buildings in the area.
The Pentagon said the camp was used by two pro-Iranian militia groups, Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, and confirmed the airstrike was in retaliation for rocket launches targeting US soldiers in Iraq.
The camp in Syria of a pro-Iranian militia group was attacked by US air strikes on February 25.
One of the attacks by pro-Iranian militia groups took place on February 15 against a military complex in Arbil, Iraq, killing a civilian and a foreign military contractor, several contractors.
It is unclear whether there were any casualties in the US’s retaliatory airstrike on Syrian territory.
A witness living in al-Bukamal, a Syrian city near the border with Iraq, said he suddenly heard an `unprecedentedly intense` bomb sound at around 1:30 a.m. on February 26, the time when the aerial attack was supposed to take place.
Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada are two of many militia groups built in the fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
US F-15E fighter operating in the Middle East, February 2020.
CNN editor Ben Wedeman assessed some militia groups as `well-organized and disciplined`, others as `extreme and prone to switching sides`.
Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq are becoming increasingly stronger, in the context of deteriorating relations between Tehran and Washington.
Former President Donald Trump in 2018 announced the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran.
The airstrike on February 25 was the first US military operation under President Joe Biden.
Syria and Iran expressed concern about the airstrike.
The campaign also faced opposition from some US lawmakers, who said that Biden should have waited for the US Congress to approve military action before ordering air strikes.
