The Pentagon has confirmed that the United States has launched strikes on two facilities in Syria. These facilities were reported to be utilised by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups with Iranian backing. This action comes in response to a series of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria that Washington attributes to groups supported by Iran.
President Joe Biden’s administration had earlier vowed to retaliate against any attacks on US personnel. Lloyd Austin, US Defense Secretary, voiced this stance unequivocally, stating that any attacks by Iranian-backed forces against US personnel were unacceptable and would be met with necessary measures to safeguard American lives.
In a bid to clarify the US’s position, Austin asserted that the ‘narrowly-tailored strikes’ were a defensive move and bore no relation to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. He emphasised that these were separate issues and did not indicate a change in the US’s approach towards the Israel-Hamas dispute.
Earlier, a spokesperson from the White House National Security Council had cautioned that Washington would respond to the attacks when and how it chose. This came on the heels of a statement from the US Department of Defense, confirming that US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria had been subjected to at least 16 attacks this month by ‘Iranian-backed militia groups’.
The frequency of reported attacks on US forces in the region has seen a significant increase since the inception of the Israel-Hamas war. This conflict was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel by the Palestinian group, which Israeli officials claim resulted in the death of more than 1,400 people. In retaliation, Israeli air strikes on Gaza, which Palestinian authorities say have killed over 7,000 people, were launched.
President Biden revealed on Wednesday that he had issued a direct warning to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against targeting US troops in the Middle East. This warning, he stressed, was not connected to Israel. While the US and Tehran lack formal diplomatic relations, Biden did not disclose how the message was conveyed.
This account was contested by Mohammad Jamshidi, an aide to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who refuted Biden’s claims in a social media post. He stated that the messages from the US were requests, not warnings.
Fears of the Israel-Hamas conflict escalating into a wider regional conflict have been voiced by US officials. Iran supports both Hamas, the governing body in Gaza, and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which has had several clashes with Israel along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, speaking at the United Nations on Thursday, warned that the US would not escape ‘this fire’ if the bombardment of Gaza by Israel continued. He sent a clear message to American statesmen that Iran did not want the conflict to expand but would not stand by if the ‘genocide in Gaza’ persisted.
