At least three civilians were killed after US troops conducted an airdrop operation in eastern Syria's Deir ez-Zor Province, the state-run Syrian news agency SANA reported on Sunday. The Pentagon has not commented on the matter.
SANA cited unnamed sources as saying that an airdrop involving helicopters was carried out by "a group of commandos affiliated with" American forces in the village of al-Shuhail on the banks of the Euphrates River in Deir ez-Zor.
According to the sources, the civilians died as a result of "heavy shooting at houses and agricultural lands" in the area.
The alleged operation follows SANA reporting earlier this week that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by US troops abducted a number of civilians after encircling residential buildings in the villages of Busayteen and al-Jasimi in northern Deir ez-Zor.
In a separate development in Deir ez-Zor earlier this year, US forces reportedly moved a large convoy containing weapons, equipment and "logistical materials" to the base at al-Omar oil field in the al-Jazeera region of the province.
US Troops in Syria
The Pentagon justifies the deployment of the US contingent in Syria by asserting that they are there to ensure the "enduring defeat" of Daesh* terrorists.
The former Daesh "caliphate" was formally routed by both Syrian and Iraqi forces by 2017, with Washington continuing to use the purported threat of the group's re-emergence as justification for its continued presence in both countries.
In October 2019, then-US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would be withdrawing its forces from Syria, but eventually backtracked. He stated that a "small" American contingent would stay behind to "keep the oil", also claiming that the revenues from the crude would go to fund the Kurdish SDF and their militia.
Damascus insists that the US presence in Syria is illegal and accuses America of seeking to plunder Syrian oil.
The US presence in Syria is not supported by any UN Security Council mandates, and Washington does not have an invitation from the country's government to operate in the Arab Republic.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.