The Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that the US military has carried out multiple targeted air strikes on facilities in Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Though it didn’t identify any of the targets in the strikes or offer a casualty estimate, the statement only said the US strikes targeted infrastructure facilities.
They come in light of the draft agreement proposed by the EU that would bring back the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that President Joe Biden has sought to revive and Washington is now to respond to it.
The operation was announced on Tuesday night by the US Central Command (CENTCOM), saying these strikes are intended to defend and protect US forces from attacks by Iran-backed groups like the ones on August 15 against US personnel, suggesting they may have carried out the drone attack on the American base earlier this month.
During the Aug.15 attack cited by CENTCOM, multiple unidentified drones stroke the remote US garrison outpost in southern Syria’s Al-Tanf, near the three-way border with Jordan and Iraq, but caused no casualties.
Though Washington had not pinned the blame on any actor, a senior US commander nonetheless suggested that Iran-backed groups were behind the attack that put the lives of innocent Syrian civilians at risk.
Apart from the base in Al-Tanf, US troops, first deployed as advisers under President Barack Obama, have also been present long time in Syria’s northeast, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Iran-backed militias, on the other hand, established a foothold in Syria during Syria’s civil war while fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Denouncing the American presence, the Syrian government has repeatedly demanded that US troops vacate the country despite CENTCOM’s reiterated claims that American forces do not seek conflict and only remain in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of the Islamic State.
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