Twenty-two US soldiers were injured in a helicopter accident in northeastern Syria, the military said on Monday. It said it was investigating the cause of the incident, which it called a “mishap”, adding that no enemy fire had been reported.

The troops sustained “injuries of various degrees”, the military’s Central Command, which oversees operations in West Asia, said in a brief statement that was posted on Twitter.

Ten of them were evacuated to hospitals outside the region for treatment, according to the statement, which said the accident had happened on Sunday. Central Command officials did not immediately provide additional information.

Hundreds of American troops and contractors are based in Syria. The troops work with Kurdish fighters to prevent a resurgence of the militant group Islamic State, which was ostensibly defeated as a self-declared caliphate in 2019, after five years of wreaking havoc across Iraq and Syria.

New York Times News Service