The United States will not draw recede from its nearly eight-year-old deployment to Syria, where it is combating the remnants of ISIS, despite attacks on US forces there last week by Iran-backed militia, the White House said on Monday.
A drone attack hit a US base in Syria on March 23, killing an American contractor, wounding another, and injuring five US troops. That activated US retaliatory air strikes and exchanges of fire that a Syrian war monitoring group said killed three Syrian troops, 11 Syrian fighters in pro-government militias, and five non-Syrian fighters who were aligned with the government.
John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said he was not familiar with any further attacks over the past 36 hours but cautioned, “We’re going to stay vigilant.”
Kirby also referred to United States President Joe Biden’s statements on Friday, in which Biden warned Iran that the US would act strongly to guard Americans.
There’s been no change in the US footprint in Syria as a result of what happened the last few days. We’re not going to be deterred … by these attacks from these militant groups.”
Kirby said, adding the mission against ISIS would continue.
Syria’s foreign ministry on Sunday denounced US strikes, saying the United States had lied about what was targeted and vowing to “end the American occupation” of its territory. Iran’s foreign ministry also condemned the strikes, blaming US forces for targeting “civilian sites.
US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration’s campaign against ISIS 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.
Before the latest attacks, US troops in Syria had been struck by Iranian-backed groups about 78 times since 2021, according to the US military.
Iran has been a major supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s 12-year battle. Iran’s proxy militias, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah and pro-Tehran Iraqi groups, hold power in swathes of eastern, southern, and northern Syria and suburbs around the capital, Damascus.
