US President Joe Biden announced to Tehran that the US will resolutely defend its troops occupying part of Syria after the US military’s attack on Iranian-backed forces in Syria.
“The US is not seeking conflict with Iran, but expect us to act decisively to protect our people,” Biden told reporters during a visit to Canada. Asked whether Iran should pay an even higher price, Biden responded, according to the Guardian: “We will not stop”.
On Thursday, an American member of a mercenary group was killed and five American soldiers and another member of a mercenary group were wounded in an attack on an American military base in northeastern Syria near the city of Hasakah.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that an Iranian-made drone was used in the attack, but did not back it up with evidence, Al Jazeera reported.
The US Department of Defense then said F-15 fighter jets attacked two buildings used by groups linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Thursday. Eight people are said to have been killed in this attack, and according to some reports 11, allegedly fighters with the support of Iran.
On Friday, there were new retaliatory attacks on US forces in eastern Syria, in which one US soldier was wounded. It is said to be a base in the Syrian oil field Al Omar.
The U.S. military in Syria has been the target of drone attacks on several occasions, which rarely result in fatalities.
The US military also carried out new attacks in eastern Syria on Friday, local sources reported. There are said to be no victims. Iran’s state-run Press TV quoted local sources as saying the target of the US strikes was not military or linked to Iran, but a development center and grain warehouse near a military airport.
Iran has a military presence in Syria with the permission of the authorities in Damascus, as Tehran supports the Syrian president in the Syrian war Bashar al-Assadwhile US forces are in Syria without the approval of the Syrian authorities.
The US deployed its forces in Syria during the president’s administration Barack Obama and the battles against the jihadist Islamic State, in which the US military cooperated with the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.
There are about 900 US troops in Syria, mostly in the east of the country, where the oil fields are located. Former US President Donald Trump openly said in 2020 that the purpose of the US military presence “take the oil”.
Source: Rtvslo
