--- title: "The US-Led Coalition Just Bombed Pro-Regime Forces In Syria" date: "2017-05-18" modified: "2017-05-18" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-syria-regime-airstrikes/" categories: - "Around the World" - "Middle East" - "News" tags: - "central command" --- # The US-Led Coalition Just Bombed Pro-Regime Forces In Syria ![]() The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria conducted airstrikes against forces loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad [near At Tanf](), a restive area on the country’s southern border with Iraq and Jordan, on May 18, defense officials told [multiple]()[media]() outlets. A Pentagon official said U.S. military jets [targeted]() a pro-regime Shia militia armed and [equipped]() by the Assad government and “deemed a threat to U.S. partners near Jordan,” Stars and Stripes [reports](). The airstrikes were characterized to reporters as a “[defensive]()," targeting militia fighters "advancing well inside an established de-confliction zone," northwest of the At Tanf, CENTCOM said in a [statement](). The bombing was carried out "after apparent Russian attempts to dissuade Syrian pro-regime movement south towards At Tanf were unsuccessful, a coalition aircraft show of force, and the firing of warning shots," [according]() to CENTCOM. A DoD official [told Voice of America]() that the strikes were “not a change in policy but instance of commander on the ground's decision for force protection.” BuzzFeed, which [first reported]() the airstrikes, has additional details: *Unlike the US strike against the al-Shayrat air base in March, which the Trump administration ordered in retaliation for a regime chemical weapons attack, Thursday’s strike seemed designed to protect the US forces based at* Tanf*.* *One of the defense officials — who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details that the Pentagon had yet to make public — said that the US acted to stop an advance of pro-regime forces toward* Tanf*. Pro-regime forces had crossed a pre-agreed deconfliction zone and continued to advance despite warning strikes, he added.* CENTCOM [told]() the media that the strike destroyed "construction equipment and a tank." The reported bombing came just days after the Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions against Syrian companies and individuals on May 16, [citing]() the Assad regime’s “relentless attacks on civilians.” The day before Treasury announced the new sanctions, a State Department spokesman presented evidence that the Assad regime had killed thousands of prisoners and [constructed]() a crematorium outside the notorious Sednaya military prison, north of Damascus, to “dispose of detainees' remains with little evidence." A State Department spokeswoman [said]() on May 17 that the U.S. would continue to pressure the Russian government to drop its support of the Assad regime. In April, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster declared that Moscow’s continued support for Assad and other regional forces “clearly cut against Russian interest.” The airstrikes came just over a month after the U.S. military launched about 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the USS *Ross* and USS *Porter* at the al-Shayrat military air base southeast of Homs, in response to a gas attack against Syrian civilians by pro-regime forces in early May. ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()