The Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have continued implementing a January transition agreement. US Central Command has maintained pressure on the Islamic State with airstrikes and withdrew from the Tanf garrison in southern Syria. Damascus is assuming control of Islamic State detention sites in the eastern part of the country. Senior US, Syrian, and SDF officials met in Munich to discuss integration, the ceasefire implementation, and safeguarding rights amid Syria’s changing security landscape.

The US-backed Syrian Free Army (SFA), which operates from the Tanf Garrison in southern Syria, has been working to secure and protect an airbase 45 miles east of Damascus. The Al Seen Military Airbase was previously used by the Assad regime and has been the site of “sabotage” recently, according to the SFA. The commander of the Syrian Air Force visited the facility on May 20.

Iran has divulged more details about a senior officer from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force who was killed in Syria last month. The 32-year old Col Morteza Hosseinpour-Shalmani (AKA Hossein Qomi) died afteran Islamic State ambush near Jamouna, which is about 37 miles northeast of the US base of Tanf by the Iraqi border in eastern Syria. The operations commander of the Iranian-led Iraqi contingent in Syria, he was leading a unit of Seyyed al Shuhada Brigades that included Iranian-embedded soldiers.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has promoted its drone strikes against the Islamic State near the Iraqi border in Syria. The IRGC says the strikes were carried out as “revenge” for an Iranian soldier who was beheaded by the so-called caliphate.

The photos and videos show the extent of the US presence in southern Syria near the border with Iraq. This comes as the Tanf area of southeastern Syria has largely become a flash-point between US and Iranian-controlled forces.

One day before Tuesday’s US airstrike in southeastern Syria, Iranian media announced the death of an Afghan militiaman in the vicinity of the Tanf military base, where coalition forces are training Syrian insurgents fighting the Islamic State.
