U.S. forces launch second day of strikes on Syrian rebels allegedly backed by Iran

US troops recently came under rocket fire at a base in the northeastern Hasakah province of Syria. In response, the US military has carried out more air strikes in Syria against “Iranian-aligned targets.”

CENTCOM, the US military command in the Middle East, did not disclose the number of airstrikes or the identities of the targets on Wednesday. They only said that the “group’s weapons storage and logistics headquarters” that were linked to Iran were hit.

CENTCOM said that the fighters who did not give their names fired rockets at the US Patrol Base Shaddadi in northeast Syria, but they did not hurt any US or “partner forces” or damage the base.

In addition, CENTCOM said on Tuesday that it had attacked “Iranian-backed groups” in Syria, hitting nine targets in two different parts of the country in the two days prior.

Michael Erik Kurilla, the commander of CENTCOM, declared in a statement following the latest strikes that “US Central Command and our regional partners will aggressively pursue any threat to US forces, allies, partners, and security in the region.”

In 2014, ISIL (ISIS) seized significant territory in both Syria and Iraq prior to its military defeat. As part of a long-running operation to prevent the group from resurging, the US has stationed about 900 soldiers in the eastern part of Syria and another 2,500 in neighboring Iraq.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group, reports that CENTCOM’s strikes on Monday in the Al Mayadeen area of eastern Syria’s Deir Az Zor countryside killed four Syrian members of armed groups backed by Iran and injured ten others, some seriously.

CENTCOM did not specify the location of their separate strikes in Syria.

In 2018, US President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of all US troops from Syria, citing the defeat of ISIL as the justification.

Later, though, the US military said that a backup force would stay in the country. Some people perceive their presence as a strategy to deter ISIL and prevent Iran from expanding its influence in Syria.