By JOSH BOAK, BASSEM MROUE and JON GAMBRELL (Associated Press)
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — President Joe Biden mentioned Friday that the U.S. would reply “forcefully” to guard its personnel after U.S. forces retaliated with airstrikes on websites in Syria utilized by teams affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard following an assault Thursday by a suspected Iranian-made drone that killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six different Americans in northeast Syria.
“The United States does not, does not seek conflict with Iran,” Biden mentioned in Ottawa, Canada, the place he’s on a state go to. But he mentioned Iran and its proxies ought to be ready for the U.S. “to act forcefully to protect our people. That’s exactly what happened last night.” Activists mentioned the U.S. bombing killed no less than 4 folks.
While it’s not the primary time the U.S. and Iran have traded strikes in Syria, the assault and the U.S. response threaten to upend current efforts to deescalate tensions throughout the broader Middle East, whose rival powers have made steps towards détente in current days after years of turmoil.
According to U.S. officers, two simultaneous assaults had been launched at U.S. forces in Syria Friday. Officials mentioned that based mostly on preliminary data, there was a rocket assault on the Conoco plant, and one U.S. service member was injured however is in secure situation. At about the identical time, a number of drones had been launched at Green Village, the place U.S. troops are additionally based mostly. One official mentioned that every one however one of many drones was shot down, and there have been no U.S. accidents there. The officers spoke on situation of anonymity to debate army operations.
On Friday night time, two Syrian opposition activist teams reported a brand new wave of airstrikes on japanese Syria that hit positions of Iran-backed militias after rockets had been fired at a Conoco gasoline plant that has a base housing American troops. Several U.S. officers mentioned the U.S. didn’t launch any assaults in late Friday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mentioned the American intelligence neighborhood had decided the drone in Thursday’s assault on was of Iranian origin, however supplied no different speedy proof to assist the declare. The drone hit a coalition base within the northeast Syrian metropolis of Hasaka. The wounded included 5 American service members and a U.S. contractor.
Austin mentioned the strikes had been a response to the drone assault “as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria” by teams affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard.
Biden, talking throughout a press convention with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, expressed his “deepest condolences” to the household of the American killed and well-wishes for the injured.
Iran depends on a community of proxy forces by the Mideast to counter the U.S. and Israel, its arch regional enemy. The U.S. has had forces in northeast Syria since 2015, after they deployed as a part of the struggle towards the Islamic State group, and maintains some 900 troops there, working with Kurdish-led forces that management round a 3rd of Syria.
The U.S. airstrikes hit targets in three cities in japanese Syria, activists mentioned. Overnight, movies on social media purported to point out explosions in Deir el-Zour, a strategic province that borders Iraq and incorporates oil fields. Iranian-backed militia teams and Syrian forces management the realm, which additionally has seen suspected airstrikes by Israel in current months allegedly focusing on Iranian provide routes.
According to a protection official, the U.S. counterstrikes had been performed by F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The official spoke on situation of anonymity to debate army operations.
According to a U.S. official, the U.S. F-15s struck three areas, all within the neighborhood of Deir el-Zour.
The activist group Deir Ezzor 24, which covers information within the province, mentioned the American strikes killed 4 folks and wounded plenty of others, together with Iraqis.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition struggle monitor, put the demise toll from U.S. strikes at 11 Iranian-backed fighters — together with six at an arms depot within the Harabesh neighborhood within the metropolis of Deir el-Zour and 5 others at army posts close to the cities of Mayadeen and Boukamal.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Observatory, mentioned three rockets had been fired earlier Friday at al-Omar oil discipline in Deir el-Zour that homes U.S. troops, an obvious retaliation to the American strikes.
An official with an Iran-backed group in Iraq mentioned the strikes on japanese Syria early Friday killed seven Iranians. The official spoke on situation of anonymity consistent with laws.
Deir Ezzor 24 and the Observatory had no particulars on whether or not the brand new wave of airstrikes Friday night time on the town of Deir el-Zour inflicted any casualties.
The Associated Press couldn’t instantly independently affirm the activist reviews. Iran and Syria didn’t instantly acknowledge the strikes, nor did their officers on the United Nations in New York reply to requests for remark from the AP.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which solutions solely to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been suspected of finishing up assaults with bomb-carrying drones throughout the broader Middle East.
The alternate of strikes got here as Saudi Arabia and Iran have been working towards reopening embassies in one another’s nations. The kingdom additionally acknowledged efforts to reopen a Saudi embassy in Syria, whose embattled President Bashar Assad has been backed by Iran in his nation’s lengthy struggle.
U.S. Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the pinnacle of the American army’s Central Command, warned that its forces might perform further strikes if wanted. “We are postured for scalable options in the face of any additional Iranian attacks,” Kurilla mentioned in an announcement.
Addressing the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Kurilla warned lawmakers that the “Iran of today is exponentially more militarily capable than it was even five years ago.” He pointed to Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles and bomb-carrying drones.
“What Iran does to hide its hand is they use Iranian proxies,” Kurilla mentioned.
According to officers, Iran has launched 80 assaults towards U.S. forces and areas in Iraq and Syria since January 2021. The overwhelming majority of these have been in Syria.
Diplomacy to deescalate the alternate appeared to start instantly. The overseas minister of Qatar spoke by cellphone with U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in addition to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the Qatari state information company report. Doha has been an interlocutor between Iran and the U.S. not too long ago amid tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Austin mentioned he licensed the retaliatory strikes on the route of President Joe Biden.
“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin mentioned. “No group will strike our troops with impunity.”
The U.S. beneath Biden has struck Syria beforehand over tensions with Iran — in February and June of 2021, in addition to August 2022.
Dareen Khalifa, a senior Syria analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, mentioned that whereas Thursday’s alternate of strikes comes at a delicate political second because of the “overall deterioration of U.S.-Iran relations and the stalling of the nuclear talks,” she doesn’t count on a big escalation.
“These tit-for-tat strikes have been ongoing for a long time,” Khalifa mentioned, though she famous that they normally don’t end in casualties.
While “the risk of an escalatory cycle is there,” she mentioned, “I think the Biden administration won’t be eager to escalate in Syria now and will instead have a relatively measured response.”
Since the U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020, Iran has sought “to make life difficult for U.S. forces stationed east of the Euphrates,” mentioned Hamidreza Azizi, an professional with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
“Iran increased its support for local proxies in Deir el-Zour while trying to ally with the tribal forces in the area,” Azizi wrote in a current evaluation. “Due to the geographical proximity, Iraqi groups also intensified their activities in the border strip with Syria and in the Deir el-Zour province.”
The strikes come in the course of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Syria’s struggle started with the 2011 Arab Spring protests that roiled the broader Middle East and toppled governments in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen. It later morphed right into a regional proxy battle that has seen Russia and Iran again Assad. The United Nations estimates over 300,000 civilians have been killed within the struggle. Those figures don’t embody troopers and insurgents killed within the battle; their numbers are believed to be within the tens of hundreds.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Irbil, Iraq, and Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”