CENTCOM denies killing of US soldiers in Syria

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) denied that US soldiers were killed or captured in the region, commenting on the statement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which said it had attacked the US base of "Al-Tanf" in Syria.

CENTCOM said in a statement today, Friday, July 17, that Iranian forces claim to have attacked the "al-Tanf" garrison in Syria, and that they captured or killed US soldiers during it, commenting that it is a "false claim", stressing that no US soldier has been killed or captured in the area recently.

A Syrian military source previously denied to the Qatari network Al Jazeera that  the "Al-Tanf" base was subjected to any targeting or bombardment, as the source said that the "Al-Tanf" base does not contain any American military presence in it.

For its part, Reuters quoted a Syrian military source as saying that Iran launched an attack near al-Tanf, but did not hit the base itself, without causing casualties or material damage.

IRGC Speaks Killing of US Soldiers in Al-Tanf

Earlier on Friday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had targeted the US base in Syria, due to what it considered "revenge for the blood of Iranshahr soldiers" who fell in US strikes on an Iranian military base.

Iran's Tasnim news agency quoted the IRGC's public relations as saying that the strikes, which it described as "surprise" on the base, came within the 11th wave of the "Nasr 2" operation, under the slogan "Ya Abba Abdullah al-Hussein", and a dedication to the Iranian soldiers who fell in Iranshahr.

One of the Iranian military bases, in the city of Iranshahr in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, was hit by a US missile attack, killing 7 Iranian soldiers and wounding others, on July 15.

According to the IRGC, the attack resulted in the destruction of a radar system and a number of helicopters used in special operations, and led to the death of a number of American soldiers, and this is the first adoption of an attack inside Syria, after the Iran-US war.

Are there U.S. troops at al-Tanf base?

Al-Tanf Base is a highly sensitive military site in the far southeast of Syria, located in the Homs desert at the border triangle linking Syria with Iraq and Jordan, and directly overlooks the Damascus-Baghdad International Road (M2), one of the region's most important military trade and supply arteries.

The base was established in 2016 by the US-led international coalition under the pretext of fighting the Islamic State, but it quickly turned into a US fulcrum used as a regional pressure card and for years surrounded by the Washington-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) within the so-called "Area 55".

In February 2026, the US Central Command announced the complete withdrawal of its forces from al-Tanf after about 10 years of military presence, with the Syrian Ministry of Defense and the Border Guard officially taking over the signing.

CENTCOM described the withdrawal of U.S. forces from al-Tanf as "part of a deliberate and conditional transition" by the international coalition-led Joint Task Force (CJTF) Operation Inherent Resolve.

Syrian forces are currently deployed in the area to secure the common border, combat arms and drug smuggling, and control the desert, which has returned al-Qaeda to the circle of Syrian sovereignty after it was one of the most influential points in Washington's hands.