The U.S. military is denying it bombed eastern Syria late Monday night or early Tuesday morning after Syrian and Iranian state media accused Washington of an attack.
“We did not carry out airstrikes in Syria last night,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Syrian and Iranian state media claimed Tuesday that a U.S. bombing at dawn killed at least seven soldiers, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and one civilian, Reuters reported.
Syrian media also reported that at least 19 other soldiers and 13 civilians were wounded in strikes targeting residential areas and military sites in Deir Ez-Zor province.
And Iranian outlets said an Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser — in the country to aid President Bashar al-Assad’s government in the Syrian civil war — was killed in the bombings.
Tensions have been high in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, with U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria coming under attack more than 100 times in the last five months.
The U.S. blames Iranian-backed proxies for the provocations, and in early February launched major airstrikes on such groups in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for an attack on a base in Jordan that killed three American troops.
Attacks on U.S. forces have since appeared to drop off, but Syria and Iran’s new accusations indicate a continued hostility in the region that may preface further provocation.