US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria

The US military said Tuesday it would carry out airstrikes against areas in eastern Syria controlled by Iran-backed militias.

The “precision strikes” in the oil-rich province of Deir ez-Zor, near Syria’s border with Iraq, “targeted infrastructure facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” said Colonel Joe Buccino, spokesman for the IDF. US Central. Assignment.

“Today’s strikes were necessary to protect and defend American personnel,” Buccino said in a statement. “The United States has taken proportionate, considered steps to mitigate the risk of escalation and minimize the risk of casualties.”

Buccino did not offer any victims of the strikes.

Neither Syria nor Iran immediately acknowledged the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitoring group, said the US attacks targeted the Ayash camp run by the Fatemiyoun Brigade, a militia made up of Afghan Shia refugees sent by Iran to join forces with Syrian civilians fighting in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. government forces. At least six Syrian and foreign militants were killed in the attacks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

According to Buccino, the attacks ordered by US President Joe Biden came in response to an August 15 attack, when Iranian-backed militias reportedly launched drones targeting the al-Tanf garrison used by US forces in the high-energy military. province of Homs. in central Syria. At the time, the US Central Command described the attack as “zero casualties and no damage”.

“The United States is not seeking conflict, but will continue to take necessary steps to protect and defend our people,” Buccino added. “US forces remain in Syria to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS.”

The attacks came as Biden sought to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which had abandoned its predecessor.

Since 2014, the US has led a coalition of countries carrying out attacks on the Islamic State group in Syria. US ground forces invaded Syria in 2015. In more recent years, the American-led coalition has also launched attacks against Syrian government forces and allies, primarily in defense of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias formed as part of the campaign against ISIS.

What started as a local protest movement in Syria’s southern city of Dara’a grew into a full-blown civil war in 2012. territory in neighboring Iraq. The jihadist group is fighting to overthrow the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and establish a caliphate.

The Syrian Civil War has attracted the United States, Russia, Iran and almost all of Syria’s neighbors. It has become the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, according to the United Nations.