US forces attacked in Syria after airstrikes on Iran-backed militias

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US forces in Syria came under missile attack a day after the US military conducted what a Pentagon official called “defensive” air strikes in Iraq and Syria against Iranian-backed militias.

Colonel Wayne Maroto, a military spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, an international coalition fighting the Islamic State, said that at approximately 7:44 p.m. local time on Monday (12:44 p.m. ET) US forces in Syria were hit by multiple rocket fire. . He said on Twitter that there were no casualties and that the damage assessment was underway.

Maroto later tweeted that while under attack, US forces in Syria responded in self-defense with artillery fire at the missile launch sites.

Members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces carry fake coffins of members of the Popular Mobilization Forces killed in US air strikes on the Syrian-Iraqi border, during a symbolic funeral in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday.

But the escalation came a day after the Pentagon announced that US air strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities used by Iran-backed armed groups at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq on Sunday.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the air strikes are intended to disrupt and deter attacks by Iranian-backed groups on US interests in Iraq.

“We have taken the appropriate, deliberate measure aimed at reducing the risk of escalation, but also to send a clear and unambiguous message of deterrence,” he told reporters in Rome on Monday.

Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica McNulty said the targeted facilities were used by a network of Iran-backed armed groups responsible for a series of recent attacks against facilities housing US personnel in Iraq.

It added that Iran-backed militias have carried out at least five “one-way” drone attacks against facilities used by US and coalition personnel in Iraq since April, as well as ongoing missile attacks against US and coalition forces.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said the air strikes were “defensive” as they were launched in response to militia attacks. Kirby added that several Iranian-backed militias, including Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, used the facilities.

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The 14th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a state-backed group of several Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, said four of its members were killed in Sunday’s attack.

Symbolic funerals were held in Baghdad on Tuesday. Pictures released by PMF agencies showed fake coffins of those killed in the air strike on Sunday carrying fake coffins into the streets of the Iraqi capital.

The PMF said in a statement that the dead were working to prevent the infiltration of ISIS from Syria into Iraq and did not participate in any activity against foreign forces in Iraq. The group also denied the existence of weapons depots.

She reserves the right to retaliate and to hold the perpetrators of the attack accountable.

A spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces also condemned Sunday’s raid as a “flagrant and unacceptable violation” of Iraqi sovereignty.

“Iraq reiterates its refusal to be an arena for settling scores,” the spokesman said.

In February, President Joe Biden ordered air strikes on buildings in Syria that the Pentagon said had been used by Iranian-backed militias, in response to missile attacks on US targets in neighboring Iraq.

That operation was the first known use of military force by the Biden administration.

Sunday’s air strikes come at a sensitive time in Iran-US relations, as delegations from both countries attempt to revive the shattered 2015 nuclear deal.

A 2015 agreement between Iran and six world powers — the United States, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain — limited Tehran’s nuclear capacity in exchange for sanctions relief.

Former President Donald Trump later withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, and reimposed crippling sanctions on the country.

Asked on Monday whether he holds Tehran responsible for militia attacks on US interests in Iraq, Blinken replied: “Well, a number of the groups involved in the recent attacks are Iranian-backed militias.”

Asked what actions the United States might take if militia attacks continued, Blinken said Sunday’s air strikes and previous actions showed Biden was “fully prepared” to act to protect the interests of the United States, its people, and its personnel.

The United States has had a critical history with Iranian-backed militias since their deployment to Iraq in 2008.

Prior to the US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, Iranian-backed militias targeted US convoys with improvised explosive devices. Later in 2014, the United States and militias found themselves fighting a common adversary in the Islamic State.

Then violence erupted again under Trump between the two foes, culminating in the deaths of the top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Iran-backed militias in Iraq, in a US airstrike in January 2020.

Days later, Iran responded by launching more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi air bases housing US forces.

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