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A blast struck near a U.S.-led coalition patrol in Syria’s northern Manbij on Wednesday (January 16) in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitoring group said 16 people were killed, including two Americans.
An Islamic State-affiliated website, Amaq, said an attacker with an explosive vest had struck a foreign military patrol in a suicide attack.
Manbij has been held by U.S.-backed fighters allied to the Kurdish YPG militia since they took it from Islamic State in 2016. It is located near areas held by Russian-backed Syrian government forces and by anti-Assad fighters backed by Turkey.
Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement that he would withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria after concluding Islamic State had been defeated there.
The announcement rattled allies in the region and top U.S. officials, including Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis who quit.