After a drone attack that injured five soldiers working on a coalition base in northeastern Syria and killed one U.S. contractor, the Defense Department announced late Thursday that it had launched a series of airstrikes in eastern Syria. The attack also caused injuries to an additional American contractor.The United States carried out precise airstrikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) facilities in eastern Syria, as stated in a statement released by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
He stated, "I permitted U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) under the direction of President Biden."
The Defense Department stated, "These precision strikes are intended to protect and defend U.S. personnel." The US made a proportionate and conscious move planned to restrict the gamble of heightening and limit losses."
The statement stated that the intelligence community had determined that the drone was of "Iranian origin," but provided no explanation for why the IRGC had been identified as the attackers.There were 900 U.S. troops in the country as of December, where they continue to fight ISIS but have been targeted by what American officials claim to be Iranian-backed militias for years.
CBS News reports that American strikes struck a military post near the Iraqi town of Boukamal and killed six Iranian-backed fighters at an arms depot in the Harabesh neighborhood of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, two more fighters in Mayadeen, and a military post near the border with Iraq. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was CBS's source, and these reports were impossible to independently verify.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, surprised the troops in Syria, where the United States has had a military presence for eight years, at the beginning of March. He stated that the risk of keeping troops there was "worth" the "enduring defeat of ISIS and continuing to support our friends and allies in the region," and he linked the mission there to the security of the United States.
Not everyone believes that the risk is as significant and the mission is as clear. Recently, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz offered a bill to the House that would bring American troops back from the region for a vote. Indeed, even with assistance from the Legislative Moderate Assembly and different conservatives, it bombed 321-103 on Walk 8.
Ky. senator Rand Paul has also attempted in recent statements to push for the repeal of the 2001 AUMF, which he claims is used to justify operations there and a number of other overseas interventions since the law was passed 20 years ago in response to 9/11. He asserts that Congress should decide whether these operations should continue, not the White House alone.
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