The Pentagon has confirmed that, following a series of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria, the United States has successfully launched attacks on two facilities in Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran-backed groups.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the strikes are coming shortly after President Joe Biden’s administration pledged to respond to attacks on US personnel that Washington has blamed on armed groups backed by Iran.
‘The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement on Thursday.
‘Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.’
Austin said the “narrowly-tailored strikes” were in self-defence and were not connected to the Israel-Hamas war.
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‘They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict,’ he said.
White House National Security Council spokesman had earlier warned that Washington would respond to the attacks at a “time of our choosing and a manner of our choosing”.
Kirby’s comments came as the US Department of Defense said on Thursday that US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria had been attacked at least 16 times this month by “Iranian-backed militia groups”.
A total of 21 US personnel have been injured in the attacks, most of them suffering traumatic brain injuries, according to US officials.
Reports of attacks on US forces in the region have spiked since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, which began earlier this month when the Palestinian group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.
Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza carried out in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks.