Two F-16 fighter jets dispatched by the U.S. Air Force on Thursday targeted military infrastructure in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as its regional proxies.
Among the properties targeted were a weapons cache and ammunition storage facility.
The IRGC is a designated terrorist group, according to the United States as well as many Western powers and regional allies, including the European Union, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.
“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,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement released after the strike.
“The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop,” Austin added. “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 U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.”
The air strikes come barely a week after American personnel were repeatedly targeted by Iranian-backed militia groups in Syria and Iraq, leading to the death of an American contractor from a cardiac incident while sheltered. Nearly two dozen others were injured. The United States has stationed over 3,000 troops across these two Middle Eastern countries to assist local partners on the ground against remnants of the Islamic State.
Since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel in early October, the United States has sent two aircraft carriers to the region to deter Iran and its regional proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen from seeking to exploit the volatile regional situation as Israel seeks to dismantle the Palestinian terrorist group. President Joe Biden told reporters on Wednesday that continued attacks on Americans in the region would lead to a response.
However, Austin’s public announcement made sure to underscore that the American military response is “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.”