Photo Credit: REUTERS
The U.S. military carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs, the Pentagon said on Thursday, in response to a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in both Iraq and Syria.
As tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas conflict, U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week.
A total of 21 U.S. forces have suffered minor injuries, the vast majority of them traumatic brain injuries, according to Reuters.
"These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
"These Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin said in the statement.
"If attacks by Iran's proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."
The strikes took place at roughly 4:30 a.m. on Friday in Syria (0130 GMT) near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.
Reuters also reported that about 900 more U.S. troops had arrived in the Middle East or were heading there to bolster air defenses for the country’s personnel amid a surge in attacks by Iran-affiliated groups.
Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder shared the information with reporters on Thursday.
Ryder said U.S. forces were again targeted earlier on Thursday in Iraq but the attack failed.
"I'm not going to have more specific information to provide to you from here in terms of specific groups that have claimed responsibility (for attacking U.S. personnel), other than to say we know that these groups are affiliated with Iran," Ryder said.
It was earlier reported that the U.S. military was taking new measures to protect its Middle East forces during the ramp-up in attacks by suspected Iran-backed groups and was leaving open the possibility of evacuating military families if needed.
The measures include increasing U.S. military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and boosting intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials say.
The U.S. is also beefing up monitoring from guard towers on its military facilities, increasing security at base access points and increasing operations to counter potential incoming drones, rockets and missiles, the officials say.
The latest U.S. troop deployments are tied to U.S. plans to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and Patriot missile batteries.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told the United Nations on Thursday that if Israel's retaliation against Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip does not end, then the United States will "not be spared from this fire."