The US military launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s revolutionary guard corps, the Pentagon said.
It comes in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
The US wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the US as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fuelled by Israel’s war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.
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.
Air Force brigadier general Pat Ryder said 21 US personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf garrison in Syria.
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”.
He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes “to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests”.
And he added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel’s war against Hamas.
Mr Austin said the US does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the US will not hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.
According to the Pentagon, all the US personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.
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 latest spate of strikes by the Iranian-linked groups came in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations.
The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel nearly three weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the US has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.
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.
In March, for example, the US struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s revolutionary guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a US contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria.
American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.
US officials have routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against US personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.
