The SDF is composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac members. "The number [of deaths] is likely to rise due to serious injuries," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The base, near al Omar oil field, was targeted with a drone, as part of the "Revenge for Gaza" campaign, it added. The attack is considered the first response by Iranian militias on American bases after US airstrikes on linked sites at the end of last week, the observatory also said.
The US carried out strikes on at least 85 targets in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias on Friday after three service members were killed in Jordan at the end of last mon.
In our previous post, we reported on new comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the war in Gaza would take "months".
It comes as the official number of Palestinians killed in the territory grew to 27,478 - and following comments from the former US military chief in the Middle East that suggested Israel's had achieved little since it began its action after 7 October.
Asked to judge the level of success of Israel's campaign to date, he told CBS: "It's very limited so far. You know, I think they set themselves a goal of removing the political echelon, and the military leadership echelon of Hamas, when they went in. They have not been successful to date at doing either."
This was highlighted by Middle East expert Charles Lister, who also referred to the significant escalation in hostilities involving Lebanon
An American porn actor who has advocated for Palestinians online during Israel's strikes on Gaza has attracted significant attention after travelling to Iran and visiting the former US embassy in Tehran, which was abandoned after the 1979 hostage crisis.
The visit by Whitney Wright as Iran imprisons Nobel Peace Prize laureate and women's rights activist Narges Mohammadi sparked heated criticism of the country's crackdown on women since the 2022 death in police custody of Mahsa Amini and the nationwide protests it sparked.
Wright filmed herself throughout Tehran despite her work in pornography exposing her in theory to criminal charges that carry the death penalty.
In remarks on social media, she described the US embassy - which Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard now runs as a museum - as a place she "HAD to visit."
Iranian students backing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overran the compound after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Embassy staff members taken hostage were held for 444 days.
A direct line can be drawn between that crisis and the tensions between Iran and the US today.
"I'm sharing exhibits from a museum that are never seen," Wright wrote on Instagram.
"It's not an endorsement of the government."
She has previously shared pro-Palestinian information online, including material supporting armed militancy against Israel.
As a US citizen born in Oklahoma City, she would need a visa to visit Iran.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was asked about Wright during a Monday briefing and said he had no information about her.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted an anonymous official claiming the government issued Wright a visa while not being "aware about the nature of her immoral job."
The presence of a performer from the US adult film industry immediately drew attention, with Iranian actor Setareh Pesiani citing Wright's visit to criticise Iran's hardline government for its mandatory headscarf policy, which led to the 22-year-old Amini's arrest and death.
"You punish people of this country in various methods for removal of hijab but you allow a porn actress to come here for tourism!?" Pesiani wrote on Instagram.
Masih Alinejad, a US-based activist who has faced assassination and kidnapping attempts by Iran, also denounced Wright's visit.
"We the women of Iran want to be like Rosa Parks and not Whitney Wright," she wrote, referencing the US civil rights icon.
"The true warmongers are the agents of the Islamic Republic who will execute you if you be true to yourself."John Sparks says There are conflicting voices within the Biden administration and in the Republican Party, he explains, on how the US should have handled the killing of three American service members in Jordan at the end of last month by Islamic Resistance.
The US carried out strikes on at least 85 targets in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias on Friday night.
"Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, today begins another tour in the Middle East and he's talking about non-escalation, de-escalation," Sparks says.
Despite this, the message from security adviser Jake Sullivan has been that the strikes are farfrom over.
"Sullivan is sounding tough, sending a message to the militias that if they continue to attack American bases and facilities, the Americans will hit back and they'll hit hard," Sparks says.
"The Americans don't want to escalate the situation," he adds, but says the government must be seen to be handling it effectively - a fine balance. "Speaking to critics in the Republican Party, they think that Biden should be doing more," he says. They make the case that Iran is funding these militias and should be targeted instead of the individual groups. "Some of them have suggested direct strikes on Iran - I don't think that's a path that the Biden administration want to travel [down] for fear of the possible consequences in terms of direct retaliation."I think we're really standing at the beginning of what could be a tit-for-tat conflict, a tit-for-tat war."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has given a speech to Iran's air force as tensions between the US and Iran-backed militia groups across the Middle East rise.
The supreme leader of Iran called on Arab world leaders to sever all economic ties with Israel over its war in Gaza during the address.
Iran has backed, funded and trained several proxy groups across the region to varying degrees, including Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and a number of other factions based in Syria and Iraq.
The US carried out strikes on at least 85 targets in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias on Friday night in retaliation for previous Islamic Resistance attacks in Jordan, while a drone attack carried out by the group overnight killed six Kurdish commandos from the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Iran has warned of a swift response to any potential direct attacks by the US, Israel or any other nation.
