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The US military struck two facilities in eastern Syria that it identified as linked to Iranian-backed militias, defence secretary Lloyd Austin said, following more than a dozen attacks on American forces in the region in recent weeks.
US officials framed the strikes as self-defence, but the action, the first since war broke out between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel this month, could raise fears of spillover conflict across the region as Israel prepares for a widely expected ground operation in Gaza.
The strikes followed 19 rocket and drone attacks on US forces and bases in Iraq and Syria since October 17, which have injured 21 service members. One US contractor died from a heart attack while running to shelter.
Austin described the strikes as “narrowly tailored” and defensive, aimed at protecting US forces in Iraq and Syria.
“These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups,” he said.
The facilities near Abu Kamal in Syria were used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups, US defence officials said. One was a weapons storage area and the other an ammunitions storage area. Two American F-16s carried out the strikes on Friday morning.
The US strikes came as Israel said its forces had conducted a “targeted raid” inside the Gaza Strip for a second night, using ground forces, fighter jets and drones.
Israeli jets and artillery carried out the raids in the centre of the strip, striking what the military said were Hamas targets in the Shuja’iyya area and elsewhere. As with the previous incursion on Wednesday night, its soldiers left the area at the end of the raid, the military said.
The US strikes in Syria show the Biden administration’s effort to deter Iran from targeting US forces in the region while avoiding further inflaming a conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is backed by Tehran.
“We do not seek to widen the conflict nor escalate it,” a senior US defence official said. “Our desire is for Iran’s most senior leaders to direct their proxies and militias to cease these attacks on US personnel in Iraq and Syria.”
Washington is strengthening its troop presence and air defences in the Middle East. Since Hamas launched a surprise assault on Israel on October 7, the US has sent 2,000 Marines to the region and deployed two carrier strike groups to deter Iran.
The US has asked Israel to delay the ground invasion of Gaza, which Hamas controls, to allow time to get air defences in place. There are 900 US troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq assisting local forces fighting Isis.
The Pentagon said on Thursday that it would send or had sent another 900 troops to the region, including personnel to operate air defence systems.
The strikes in Syria were “separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict”, Austin said.
“We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict.”
The US last struck Iran-linked targets in north-east Syria in late March, after an attack on an American base that resulted in the death of a contractor, the senior military official said.