White House says the U.S. is not seeking conflict with Iran

The White House said Friday the United States is not seeking conflict with Iran after President Joe Biden launched a retaliatory airstrike on an American contractor killed in Syria by an Iranian drone.

An Iranian suicide drone killed a contractor and wounded five US servicemen on Thursday at a maintenance facility at a coalition base near al-Hasakah in northeast Syria.

Biden responded by deploying ‘precision airstrikes’ against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing 11 pro-Iranian fighters. The Iranian-backed fighters responded by firing three rockets on Friday morning.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby appeared on US morning shows on Friday and was asked on CNN whether Iran might consider the recent attacks an “act of war.”

‘We are not looking for a war with Iran. We are not looking for an armed conflict with that country or another war in the region,’ Kirby said.

“We seek to protect our mission in Syria, which is about defeating ISIS, and we seek to protect our people at our facilities against these Iranian-backed groups,” Kirby added.

He was unable to provide details about the identity of the US contractor, other than confirming that he was a US citizen.

“We’re trying to give the family some time and space to grieve,” Kirby explained.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Kirby said it was clear that the Iran-backed group resented the US presence in the region.

“They don’t want to see the US presence in Iraq, they don’t want to see it in Syria and they are retaliating, they are acting to limit our ability to go after ISIS both in those countries and to try to force our hand to get it out.” Kirby said.

He also said that the three rocket attacks launched against the US base in the Al-Omar oil field did not cause any damage.

“It’s not uncommon when we take a retaliatory strike like this that they immediately respond with some ineffective rocket fire and these were largely, completely ineffective,” Kirby said. “No one was hurt, there were no American casualties at all.”

“It was kind of the knee-jerk reaction that we get from these militant groups whenever we do this kind of thing,” he continued. “But having said that, obviously we will be keeping an eye out for any further response from Iran or its militant groups in Syria, in Iraq.”

Iran’s state-run Press TV, saying no Iranians had been killed in the attack, cited local sources who denied the target was an Iran-aligned military post, but that a rural development center and a grain center near a military airport were hit. attacked.

“We will always take all necessary steps to defend our people and we will always respond at the time and place we choose,” Army General Erik Kurilla, who oversees US troops in the Middle East, said in a statement to Reuters.