On Wednesday night, two American F-15 fighter jets executed a strike on targets inside Syria that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said had been used by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force affiliates. The attacks were, he added, “a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria,” but the strikes also occurred just hours after the Pentagon confirmed that the Houthi militia group operating in Yemen had shot down a $30 million MQ-9 Reaper drone.
This latest round of strikes on Iran-backed targets inside Syria follows President Joe Biden’s October 26 decision to approve an aerial attack on Syrian targets linked to the IRGC “and other affiliated groups.” That attack was a belated response to the dozens of attacks on U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed Shiite militia groups, some of which the Pentagon admitted had produced U.S. casualties. “Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces,” Austin said. “If attacks by Iran’s proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.”
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