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The U.S. military conducted airstrikes on two sites in eastern Syria associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and “affiliated groups” following attacks on U.S. personnel there and in neighboring Iraq, the Pentagon said Thursday night.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the “narrowly-tailored strikes” were a response to a series of assaults beginning Oct. 17, which he said had resulted in minor injuries to 21 U.S. service members. An American contractor died after suffering cardiac arrest during one incident.
“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 said in a statement. “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 strikes come days after President Biden, facing increasing pressure to retaliate for the attacks, issued a warning to Iran’s supreme leader that the United States would act if further provoked.
The Biden administration is working to prevent the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, who are supported by Iran, from exploding into greater violence across the Middle East. The renewed conflict following Hamas militants’ Oct. 7 assault into Israel, which killed more than 1,400 people, has stoked long-simmering tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The United States has for many years faced assaults from Iranian-linked militants in Iraq, where the United States maintains a force of some 2,500 troops, and in Syria, where the U.S. personnel number around 900. The Biden administration has authorized previous strikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria, including in March of this year.
The Biden administration has expressed strong support for Israel in the days since the Hamas attacks, expediting shipments of munitions and other arms to Israel and dispatching two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region in an effort to avert an expansion of the conflict. It has also urged caution as Israel prepares for an expected ground offensive in Gaza, where health officials say the death toll has already reached more than 7,000.
Austin said the strikes “do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict.”
Speaking at the United Nations earlier on Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister warned that the United States would not be “spared from this fire” if the conflict in Gaza intensifies.