Five British soldiers killed in Daesh rocket attack in Dayr al-Zawr: Report

Syrian media say at least five British soldiers have been killed in a rocket attack by Takfiri Daesh terrorists in Syria’s troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Syrian Arabic-language newspaper al-Watan reported on Wednesday that several soldiers were also injured during the attack which targeted al-Shaafah village in Abu Kamal district of the province.

Dayr al-Zawr is located 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The UK is yet to comment on the report. If confirmed, this would be the second Daesh attack on British troops in Syria in days.

British media reported on Sunday that two UK soldiers were injured and one member of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Western-backed coalition of mainly Kurdish militants, was killed in a similar attack in Dayr al-Zawr on Saturday.

The SDF, militarily led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), has been accused of colluding with Daesh Takfiri militants.

The British soldiers were part of the US-led coalition, which has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.

Syrian government forces have frequently discovered US- and Israeli-made bombs and weapons, some of which were extremely rare in the Arab country, during the ongoing anti-terror campaign across the country.

Read more:

• US supplying weapons to Daesh terrorists in Syria: Report
• US-made mortar shells uncovered in Daesh hideout
• Syria uncovers new caches of arms made in US

Damascus has, for several times, written to the UN to complain that the US was flagrantly violating its sovereignty. The US supports militants fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad and has repeatedly attacked Syrian army positions.

Meanwhile, the SDF announced on Wednesday that it had in its custody a total of 13 British nationals who it says were members of Daesh or their dependents.

Citing Kurdish sources, the Daily Telegraph reported that a mother and her two daughters, described as being “in their late 20s,” fled the town of al-Shafaah last week amid the fighting.

They were interned at the al-Hawl detention camp in northeastern Syria, joining another British woman suspected of having links to Daesh, the report said.

Estimates suggest that hundreds of UK nationals have joined Daesh over the past years while the group has been wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.

Experts have blamed the migration of terrorist from Britain on loose controls, saying Britain is faced with a huge security threat from those nationals once they return home.

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