Exclusive-US-backed force in Syria: more air defence needed after deadly drone attack

A force that has been the backbone of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State said additional air defences should be deployed in northeast Syria after six of its fighters were killed in a drone attack it blamed on pro-Iran factions. Mazloum Abdi, commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, said his force considered it "a dangerous development when our camps are targeted in drone attacks by factions backed by Iran." Abdi's remarks to Reuters from northeast Syria suggest the force's fighters -- deployed alongside U.S. troops to fight remnants of Islamic State -- are increasingly vulnerable to widening regional instability in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas.