The U.S. military on Wednesday said American warplanes struck a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria that officials said was being used by Iran-backed militants responsible for dozens of drone and rocket attacks against American troops in the region over the last three weeks.
It was the second such strike in the past two weeks.
“Today, at President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted a self-defense strike on a facility in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “This strike was conducted by two U.S. F-15s against a weapons storage facility. This precision self-defense strike is a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-Quds Force affiliates. The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.
“The United States is fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities. We urge against any escalation. U.S. personnel will continue to conduct counter-ISIS missions in Iraq and Syria,” he said.
“Between October 17 and November 7 … U.S. forces have been attacked at least 40 times,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday.
Airlift operations have been extensive for several weeks. C-17s have been running in and out of Tel Aviv, and rather circuitous routes into and out of Azraq (Jordan), and Al-Harir (Iraq). Likely going in heavy and flying out empty.
Navy P-8s have had near constant surveillance operations out of NAS Sigonella. RC-135s (and their variants) out of Suda Bay have frequently been sniffing the air west of Israel. Tankers are up just about every time you look. They’ve been very busy lately.
Bai-Den is putting on a big show of force, hoping against hope that it scares the Palestinians and Iran–so they don’t do anything dramatic. It’s sorta like a dog barking loudly to scare you.
But Iran is not the problem.
Turkey is the problem. And Turkey has been playing footsie with Putin, AND with leaving NATO. Putin’s perfectly happy to have Turkey get noisy with Israel, or at least make noises.
If Bai-Den and his advisers had the IQ of a chipmunk, they’d be backing down. They don’t, and that’s a problem.
War on three fronts: the ME, South China Sea, and our own soil.