The US wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the US as strongly as possible to deter future aggression.
The US military launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s revolutionary guard corps, the Pentagon said.
According to the Pentagon, there have been at least 12 attacks on US bases and personnel in Iraq and four in Syria since October 17. In a statement, defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the “precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17”.
The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the US would respond, with Mr Ryder saying again on Thursday that it would be “at the time and place of our choosing”.“I think we’ve been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas,” he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.
The US, including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on US bases are routine.
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