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The US has carried out airstrikes on two weapons facilities in Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The Pentagon confirmed that two F-15 fighter jets were involved in the ‘self-defense mission’ as tensions in the Middle East reach boiling point.
The attack was confirmed hours after reports emerged that Iran-backed Houthi forces had shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone off the coast of Yemen. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement after the strikes that the United States “remains fully prepared to take further necessary actions to protect our people and our facilities.” The strikes are the second carried out by the US military in less than two weeks and, according to officials, are in retaliation for more than 40 attacks by Iranian allies against US forces in the region since Hamas’ attacks on October 7.
Austin continued in the statement: “This attack was carried out by two US F-15s against a weapons platform. “This precision self-defense strike is in response to a series of attacks on US personnel in Iraq and Syria by members of the IRGC and the Quds Force,” the statement said. “The President has no higher priority than the safety of America’s personnel, and he led today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests. “The United States is fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities. We urge any escalation.”
Austin concluded by saying that U.S. military personnel “will continue to conduct anti-ISIS missions in Iraq and Syria.” The attacks come at a time of heightened global tensions and evolving military operations around the world, with Wednesday’s actions coinciding with an attack by Houthi rebels on a US MQ-9 reaper drone in Yemen. A senior US military official told Times of Israel that investigations were underway to determine whether the drone was shot down over international airspace.
The escalation comes after two Iranian-controlled military sites in eastern Syria were also hit by US airstrikes two weeks ago. At the time, the Pentagon said the attacks were not related to the war between Israel and Hamas, but analysts said they were intended to send a warning to Iran not to take advantage of the unrest in the region. It comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told the United Nations that if Israel’s offensive against Palestine does not end, the United States “will not be spared from this fire.”
During the American attack two weeks ago, the air force sent two F-16 fighter jets to a weapons and ammunition factory near Abu Kamal. No deaths were reported in the US retaliatory strikes, and a US official told Voice of America’s Jeff Seldin that the locations were chosen because no civilians were present.
U.S. officials say the strikes are in response to repeated assaults on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria stationed to counter growing ISIS forces. Since Hamas’ attacks on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people, troops have been hit more than 40 times by one-way drones or missiles by Iranian-backed militias.
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