It’s the second time in about two weeks that the U. S. has attacked a domain in Syria that it claims is connected to Iran, which supports a variety of armed teams that Washington accuses of escalating attacks on its forces in the Middle East. .
The U. S. is trying to dissuade Iran and its proxies from turning the fighting between Israel and Hamas into a regional war, but repeated attacks and retaliatory measures provoke a confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
“U. S. military forces carried out a self-defense strike against a facility in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups. This attack was carried out via two U. S. F-15s against a weapons garage facility,” Austin said in a statement.
“This precision self-defense strike is a reaction to a series of attacks on the U. S. labor corps in Iraq and Syria through affiliates of the IRGC’s Quds Force,” Austin said, adding that the U. S. “is fully prepared to take additional mandatory action for our country. ” people and our facilities.
A senior U. S. defense official said the attack was combined with “a very transparent message disseminated through channels. And the message is aimed at Iran’s more sensible leaders: “We need you to order your proxies and militias to attack us in the most sensible way. “
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday’s attack killed nine other people affiliated with Iranian-backed groups.
A senior U. S. military official said the site in Deir Ezzor province is under surveillance so the U. S. can decide when to carry out the attack with “minimal casualties,” but that it could still have caused some.
“We were following at most a few (people) that we don’t have confirmation of just before the strike,” the official said.
The U. S. military also attacked two facilities in Syria on Oct. 26 that it said were being used through the IRGC and affiliated groups, and said there were no casualties in the attacks.
As with the recent maximum attack, Washington said the latter two were a reaction to attacks on U. S. personnel, who have been attacked more than 40 times with rockets and drones since Oct. 17.
The increase in attacks on U. S. troops is related to the war between Israel and Hamas, which began when the militant organization carried out a surprise cross-border attack from Gaza on Oct. 7 that Israeli officials said killed more than 1,400 people.
The Israeli military responded with a relentless air, ground and naval attack on Gaza that, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health, killed more than 10,500 people.
– Shot down MQ-9 drone
There are about 2,500 U. S. troops in Iraq and about 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group.
The jihadists once occupied significant territory in both countries, but have been pushed back through local forces subsidized by foreign airstrikes in a bloody standoff that has lasted several years.
In an incident similar to the war between Israel and Hamas, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said Wednesday they had shot down a U. S. drone.
“Our air defenses were able to shoot down a U. S. MQ-9 while conducting hostile surveillance and espionage activities in Yemeni territorial waters as a component of the U. S. military’s support” for Israel, the rebels said in a statement.
Senior U. S. officials, who provided Israel with an army and also bolstered U. S. forces in the region after the Oct. 7 attack, proved that one of the country’s drones had been shot down.
The Houthis oppose government forces in Yemen and are also part of the “axis of resistance” of teams deployed against Israel.
They have claimed responsibility for several drone and missile attacks on Israel, its war against Hamas, and the U. S. Navy intercepted missiles fired through the rebels last month.
In recent years, a number of MQ-9 drones, capable of flying more than 1,700 kilometers (1,100 miles) at altitudes of up to 15,000 meters (50,000 feet) and capable of being used for surveillance and attacks, have been lost or damaged. , adding one that the U. S. says was shot dead by the Houthis in 2019.