Washington: The US military said it has carried out air strikes in Syria’s Deir al-Zor against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The strikes came even as the United States was aiming to respond soon 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.
The military’s Central Command said in a statement on Wednesday (AEST) that such strikes were aimed at protecting American forces from attack by Iran-backed groups.
The US warplanes dropped guided bombs on bunkers containing ammunition and other military hardware at 4am Wednesday Syrian time, The New York Times reported.
It cited one such incident on August 15, which Reuters 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 Colonel Joe Buccino.
Central Command called the strikes a “proportionate, deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimise the risk of casualties.”
The statement about the strike did not mention whether there were any casualties and did not say whether they were carried out by manned or unmanned aircraft.
Read the article by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in The Sydney Morning Herald.