US, Citing More Attacks on Forces, Conducts Further Strikes in Eastern Syria

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at a news conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Oct. 12, 2023. Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. forces have conducted more precision strikes on targets in eastern Syria in response to continued attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon stated on Nov. 12.

The Nov. 12 operations were against facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran-affiliated groups, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said.

“The strikes were conducted against a training facility and a safe house near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin, respectively,” he said.

“The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.”

Since Oct. 17, U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria have been the victims of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks by militia groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Republic. In the past, the Pentagon has claimed that these attacks on U.S. personnel are a separate issue from the ongoing Israel–Hamas War in the Gaza Strip. However, Iran and other groups involved have threatened to increase their assaults on U.S. troops should Israel pursue its invasion of Gaza to uproot and eliminate Hamas.

The repeated attacks prompted U.S.-led coalition forces to begin live-fire exercises at bases in the region in October and to launch airstrikes against locations in eastern Syria linked to the IRGC.

The U.S. military has deployed 1,200 service members to the Middle East as well. Duties of the troops will reportedly involve operating air defense elements and support tasks, including communications and explosive ordnance disposal.

On Nov. 8, two U.S. F-15s conducted a strike against a weapons facility used by Iran’s IRGC and affiliated groups in eastern Syria, in what Mr. Austin called “a self-defense strike” at the direction of President Joe Biden.

F-15 Eagle flies during the New York Air Show at Orange County Airport in Montgomery, N.Y., on June 24, 2023. Petr Svab/The Epoch Times

A U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone was also shot down in international airspace near Yemen on Nov. 8, according to a Department of Defense (DOD) official.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, a DOD official confirmed that Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi forces had shot down a Reaper drone. The Houthis are a Zaydi Shiite movement that has been fighting Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2004. The Houthis took over the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, triggering a brutal civil war and humanitarian crisis in the country.

The U.S. military previously carried out multiple airstrikes in Syria on March 23 against Iran-aligned groups blamed for a drone attack.

Strikes Come Amid Heightened Tensions in Middle East

Charred eggs remain on a table in a burned house following an attack by Hamas terrorists days earlier on the kibbutz near the Gaza border in Nir Oz, Israel, on Oct. 19, 2023. Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

The ongoing strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria and the deployment of U.S. troops come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians by the Hamas terrorist group. Israel declared war in response to what it has described as its 9/11 and has been conducting ongoing military operations in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claims that so far more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed. Those numbers haven’t been independently verified, with Israel challenging that Hamas fire may also be responsible for many of the Palestinian lives lost and saying it’s doing its best to minimize civilian casualties.

In a revised death toll, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson said on Nov. 9 that roughly 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed in the Oct. 7 attack, down from a previous government estimate of 1,400. Another 240 people were abducted. Israeli authorities reportedly revised the number because they suspect that “a lot of” unidentified corpses previously included in the tally were Hamas terrorists killed by Israeli Defense Forces.