“Over the past 24 hours, in response to yesterday’s rocket attacks on the Conoco site and the Green Village site in northeastern Syria, US forces struck militants affiliated with Iran” , the US Army Middle East Command (Centcom) said in a statement.
US forces used AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, AC-130 ground attack aircraft and M777 heavy artillery, Centcom said. “Four enemy fighters were killed and seven rocket launchers destroyed.”
This is the third consecutive day of firefights in Syria between US forces and armed groups suspected of being linked to Iran.
On Tuesday, the United States announced that it had bombed pro-Iranian militia bases in the east of the country. The bombardment targeted nine bunkers used in particular for the storage of ammunition.
US forces had planned to bomb 11 of the 13 bunkers in the complex but halted strikes on two of them after groups of people were seen in their vicinity.
Iran then denied any link with the armed groups targeted by these airstrikes.
On Wednesday evening, the US military announced that it had launched a new retaliatory operation during which three vehicles and the equipment used to launch some of the rockets were destroyed.
“Initial assessments indicate that two or three people suspected of being Iranian-backed militants who carried out one of the attacks were killed during the American response,” Centcom said at the time, reiterating that Tuesday’s American strikes were aimed at many “facilities used by groups affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards”.
On Thursday, US forces spotted a group of attackers equipped with rocket launchers approaching their positions and hit them before they could fire, according to a US official who requested anonymity.
“We will respond appropriately and proportionally to any attack against our soldiers,” warned the new commander of US forces in the region, General Erik Kurilla. “No group will attack us with impunity. We will take all necessary measures to defend ours.”
Centcom did not say under what circumstances the fourth fighter was killed.
Hundreds of American soldiers are deployed in northeastern Syria as part of the anti-jihadist coalition responsible for fighting, with their Kurdish allies from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group.