Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors fly above Syria on Feb. 2, 2018. (Staff Sgt. Colton Elliott/US Air National Guard)
Attack in Deir Ezzor province carried out in response to drone attack on al-Tanf base by Irgc, Pentagon says
Newsglobal.com.ng
The U.S. military said Wednesday morning carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria targeting areas used by militias backed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards.
There was no immediate acknowledgement by Syria’s state media of the attacks on Deir Ezzor. Iran also did not acknowledge the attack.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said the strikes “took deliberate and proportionate measures with the intent of limiting the risk of escalation and minimizing the risk of casualties.”
it did not identify the targets or offer casualty figures for the attacks, which the military said were on the orders of President Joe Biden.
“Today’s attacks were necessary to protect and defend U.S. personnel,” Central Command spokesman Col. Joe Buccino said in a statement.
The colonel added that the attack was in response to an Aug. 15 attack on U.S. forces. In that attack, drones allegedly launched by Iranian-backed militias targeted the al-Tanf garrison used by U.S. forces. U.S. Central Command described the assault as causing “zero casualties and no damage” at the time.
A US Marine fires a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile during a live fire demonstration near At-Tanf Garrison, Syria, September 7, 2018.
The attack came days after the US revealed that Iran had abandoned its demand that the US scrap the IRGC in exchange for Tehran agreeing to return to compliance with the Iran nuclear deal.
Deir Ezzor is a strategic province that borders Iraq and contains oil fields. Iranian-backed militia groups and Syrian forces control the area and have often been the target of Israeli warplanes in previous attacks.
On Tuesday, Iranian state media confirmed that an IRGC general was killed in Syria.
“General Abolfazl Alijani, a member of the IRGC ground forces who was on a mission in Syria as a military adviser, was martyred on Sunday,” the state broadcaster said on its website.
He described Alijani as a “defender of the sanctuary,” a term used for those working on behalf of Iran in Syria or Iraq, without providing further details of the attack in which he was killed.
Israel was blamed for several airstrikes in western and central Syria this month that left three soldiers dead.
SKJ