U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria were attacked multiple times by Iranian-backed proxies in the 24 hour period after U.S. forces conducted airstrikes against an Iranian-linked facility in Syria.
Three U.S. troops were injured in the four attacks, one against U.S. troops in Iraq and three in Syria, that occurred following the U.S. strike on Wednesday, deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters. Two of them suffered traumatic brain injuries, and one suffered a noncritical non-TBI injury, though all three have since returned to duty.
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Two U.S. F-15s conducted airstrikes against what the Department of Defense described as a weapons storage facility used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in eastern Syria on Wednesday.
"Our initial assessment as of last night is that the strike was successful and that we were able to render that building pretty much not unusable," Singh added.
These strikes, U.S. officials said, were in response to a series of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria dating back to mid-October.
"These actions were taken in response to ongoing threats and attacks directed at U.S. bases in both Syria and Iraq by the IRGC and Iran-aligned militia groups," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters. "While our defensive measures have proven effective in countering unmanned aerial vehicle attacks on our personnel, we remain vigilant and concerned about the potential for escalation or bypassing these defenses."
This was the second such instance of U.S. forces carrying out strikes on IRGC-affiliated forces, though neither has convinced the proxies to cease their attacks against U.S. troops, as evidenced by the latest attacks. U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria that are there to counter ISIS have been attacked 46 times by Iranian proxies in the region since Oct. 17.
U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked 24 separate times in Iraq and 22 separate times in Syria by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets, Singh told reporters.
In total, 56 people have been injured in the attacks since mid-October, though all of them have returned to duty. Most of those injured were harmed in strikes on Oct. 17-18. Twenty-five U.S. troops have TBIs, while the rest have other injuries.
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The U.S. military conducted airstrikes against a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage area in Syria on Oct. 26 as well.
"If these attacks continue against our personnel," Singh added, "we won't hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people and to do so at a time and place of our choosing."