A spokesperson for the Pentagon said that recent U.S. strikes on Iranian-backed groups in Syria were “self-defense” amid heightened Middle East tensions.
During an interview with ABC News on Friday, national security spokesman John Kirby said that those airstrikes were carried out on a weapons storage facility and a separate ammunition storage area that was being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in eastern Syria. It came after U.S. officials said that American troops came under attack a number of times in the past week, blaming Iran-backed forces in the region.
“Well, these strikes were very much done in self-defense. As you know, our forces and facilities had come under a range of attacks, rocket attacks, largely by these proxy groups, but they’re backed by Iran, in Iraq, and in Syria,” Mr. Kirby told ABC News.
U.S. officials have not said what groups were behind the attacks targeting U.S. troops. American and allied forces in Iraq and Syria were attacked at least 16 times this month, officials said.
“These strikes were in self-defense for our ability to protect ourselves and our troops. I mean, they went right at targets that were tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. That is resourcing, funding, training, and making capable all these proxy groups. These two targets went right at their storage facilities, weapons facilities, that kind of thing, to try to get at their ability to do exactly that,” Mr. Kirby added.
Warning to Iran
In a separate statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were not connected to the Israel-Hamas war that erupted earlier this month.
“They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict,” Mr. Austin said in a statement Thursday. “Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them,” he added.
Also Thursday, President Joe Biden issued a rare direct warning to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying Tehran should not take action against U.S. forces in the Middle East, Mr. Kirby said during a news briefing.
In the last such known U.S. retaliation, the U.S. military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on March 23 against Iran-aligned groups it blamed for a drone attack that killed one American contractor, wounded another, and hurt five U.S. troops.
“There was a direct message relayed,” he said, declining to elaborate. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately issue a public comment.
U.S. officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the Oct. 7 attack by the Hamas terrorist group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
About 900 additional U.S. troops are headed to the region or have recently arrived there to bolster air defenses to protect U.S. personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.
On Wednesday, President Biden said he had warned the ayatollah the United States would respond if U.S. forces continued to be targeted.
“My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel,” he told reporters.
Iran Responds
In a comment posted on social media before Mr. Kirby spoke, an aide to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi disputed President Biden’s account. “The US messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages,” Mohammad Jamshidi, a Raisi aide, wrote.Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack in which the militant group also took about 200 people hostage. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege, and is preparing a ground invasion.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters that the United States wouldn’t be spared if the Israeli campaign in Gaza didn’t end soon.
