While most of the focus of US operations in Syria is further north in a pair of towns under ISIS control, US warplanes attacked the border town of al-Bukamal on Sunday, hitting a residential area and killing a family of five. Two children were among the slain.

Details are still scant on why the airstrike was launched in the first place.There were no reports of fighting in the town, and the attack seems o have just hit a bunch of buildings, causing a lot of damage.

Al-Bukamal is the main border crossing between Syria and Iraq, and has been under the control of the Syrian government since seizing it from ISIS in late 2017. There have been a few fights as ISIS tried to push back in, but rarely long fights.

The US rarely launches airstrikes in support of the Syrian government in the first place, and strikes into Syrian government-controlled territory tend to be controversial. With Syria already complaining about US strikes killing civilians, this will only add to anger about the US presence in the country.