Pro-Syrian Regime Group Releases Video Threatening U.S. Base In Al-Tanf; Urges Popular Resistance To U.S. Presence In Syria

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On September 22, 2020, a pro-Syrian Regime group that calls itself "The Popular Resistance Eastern Region –East of the Euphrates," posted an animated video on its Facebook page in which it threatens to attack a U.S. military base in Al-Tanf, on the border between Syria, Iraq, and Jordan.

The one-minute long, poor quality video shows a missile emblazoned with the word "Golan" being launched, and landing on its target at U.S. Al-Tanf base. The clip threatens, "If the criminal America doesn't withdraw from our land" Syria will be a graveyard for the Americans.[1]

To view this clip on MEMRI TV, click here or below:

Two days before the video was released the group published photographs of two proclamations on its Facebook page urging residents to rebel against the American presence and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who cooperate with them, with the caption, "Has the message reached the SDF mercenaries? Today proclamations, and tomorrow coffins."[2]  One of the proclamations reads: "Distinguished residents, the heroes, the brave, the honorable. The time has come to participate in the confrontation with the invaders and those with greedy aspirations. The criminal Americans have no place on our land. They are murderers of children, women and the elderly. Let us act together to banish them from our country…"

The second proclamation reads: "Consider and make the right decision. Can they grant us the humanitarian aid that we need? They help only their slaves. We are masters, sons of masters. Let us rise up against the hated Americans and their helpers."

It is most likely that the group is directed by the Syrian regime, which has no interest in a direct confrontation with the U.S. and prefers to portray the anti-American activity in the area as "popular resistance." Evidence for this may be found in the words of Abd Al-Karim Al-Hafl, a member of the Executive Bureau of the Deir Al-Zour Council, which is subordinate to the Syrian regime. In a September 20, 2020 interview with the Syrian Al-Watan establishment daily, Al-Hafl said that the recent distribution of leaflets urging the Syrian people to rebel against the U.S. forces and their allies signifies that the "resistance has moved to the phase of science-based planning and organization," and stressed that "the Syrian people will hear good news about the achievements of the resistance." According to Al-Hafl, the resistance has spread to all the areas of the Syrian Al-Jazira, where the occupier is located, from Qamishili, to the Iraqi border, to Aleppo. He goes on to state that the resistance "will thwart the American projects, will not allow the Americans to stay, and will expel them from Syria just as they were expelled from Iraq and Lebanon."[3]

It is noteworthy that in August 2020 the group claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on the U.S. base nearby the "occupied" Conoco oilfield in the countryside of Deir Al-Zour and threatened more attacks."[4]