Drone strike targets US Syrian-Kurdish ally Mazlum Kobane, Turkey suspected
Mazlum Kobane, the Pentagon’s chief ally in the fight against the Islamic State, was traveling in a convoy with US officials at the time of the strike.
US military officials confirmed that the commander-in-chief of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazlum Kobane, was targeted in a drone strike in the Iraqi Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah Friday. Three US military personnel were in the convoy with Kobane at the time of the attack, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. There were no casualties, US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Col. Joe Buccino told Al-Monitor.
CENTCOM's account of the incident contradicted an earlier statement by SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami who insisted via Twitter that the reports concerning an attack on Kobane were “fake news” that were “intended as political blackmail against some forces in southern [Iraqi] Kurdistan.”
