DUBAI: Iran denied having any link to sites targeted by the United States in Syria, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Wednesday, according to the ministry’s telegram channel.
On Tuesday, the US military said it carried out a strike in Syria’s Deir Ezzor against infrastructure facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
“The US attack on Syrian infrastructure and people is a violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The sites targeted had no links to the Islamic Republic,” Kanaani said.
The strikes came as the United States aimed to respond to a draft agreement proposed by the European Union that would bring back the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that former President Donald Trump abandoned and current President Joe Biden has sought to revive.
US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama’s administration’s campaign against Daesh, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are about 900 US troops in Syria, most of them in the east.
Iran-backed militias established a foothold in Syria while fighting in support of President Bashar Assad during Syria’s civil war.
The military’s Central Command said in a statement that such strikes were aimed at protecting US forces from attack by Iran-backed groups.
It cited one such incident on Aug. 15, which Reuters has reported involved drone attack on a compound run by coalition and US-backed Syrian opposition fighters, with no casualties.
“The president gave the direction for these strikes,” said spokesman Army Col. Joe Buccino.
Central Command called the strikes a “proportionate, deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimize the risk of casualties.”
The statement about Tuesday’s US strike did not mention whether there were any casualties and did not say whether the air strikes were carried out by manned or unmanned aircraft.
This is not the first time US warplanes have struck Iran-backed forces in Iraq and Syria. The
United States hit operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq in June last year.
US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama’s administration’s campaign against Islamic State, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are about 900 US troops in Syria, most of them in the east.
But Iran-backed militias established a foothold in Syria while fighting in support of President Bashar Assad during Syria’s civil war.
Iranian-backed militias are heavily concentrated
