An F-15E Strike Eagle from the 391st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, launches heat decoys Dec. 15 during a close-air-support mission over Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon)
The United States carried out strikes late on November 8 against a facility in the eastern Syria governorate of Deir Ezzor that the Pentagon said was used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.
In a statement, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were conducted by two U.S. F-15 fighters and were in response to the recent attacks against U.S. forces.
U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have come under at least 41 separate rocket and drone attacks since Oct. 17. At least 46 troops have suffered what Pentagon officials described as “minor injuries,” including 25 personnel reporting symptoms of traumatic brain injuries.
A shadowy Iranian-backed armed group known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) claimed responsibility for most of the recent attacks, saying they were carried out in response to Washington’s support for the Israeli war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
“This precision self-defense strike is a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-Quds Force affiliates,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “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.”
“This precision self-defense strike is a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-Quds Force affiliates,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “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.”
A senior military official described the facility targeted by the U.S. as “a warehouse” located in the area of Maysalun near the city of Deir Ezzor.
A military official, who observed the strike in real time via live feed, told reporters that it was unclear whether any IRGC personnel were present at the facility when the F-15s dropped their precision-guided payloads, resulting in what the official described as secondary explosions.
The timing of the strike was designed to inflict “the minimal number of casualties,” the official said, noting that there had been personnel on-site earlier during the day, but their nationalities were not known.
“We are very certain that this did not involve civilian loss,” the unnamed military official said.
This was the second time the U.S. has hit facilities in Syria used by Iranian-backed groups in response to nearly daily attacks on its bases. On October 26, a US F-15 and two F-16s used precision-guided munitions to strike two facilities linked to the IRGC near the town of al-Bukamal in the southern Deir Ezzor countryside.
The previous strike failed to deter Iranian-backed groups, and the second one will not apparently have any different effect.
Right after the strike on November 8, the IRI said it had attacked U.S. troops at al-Harir Air Base in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan and al-Shadaddi base in the northeastern Syrian governorate of al-Hasakah with drones and rockets.
The U.S. has been providing Israel with unconditional support since the war broke out in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas-led surprise attack. Attacks on U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq began after Washington backed the claim that an explosion that killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Strip on October 17 was caused by a Palestinian rocket misfire, not an Israeli strike.
It’s worth noting that the recent attacks forced the U.S. to reinforce its bases in the Middle East with more than 1,200 troops and a dozen air defense systems.
