US launches new airstrikes against IRGC facility in Syria as attacks continue

Al-Monitor – The United States military on Wednesday launched a new round of airstrikes targeting a facility in eastern Syria which the Pentagon said was used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the latest sign of broader escalation with Iran-backed groups.

“Today, at President Biden’s direction, US 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 US F-15s against a weapons storage facility. This precision self-defense strike is a response to a series of attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-Quds Force affiliates,” Austin said.

It was the second round of US airstrikes in eastern Syria in just two weeks as the Biden administration struggles to contain the fallout from Israel’s war against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and clamp down on a cycle of militia attacks targeting local US bases.

US troops in Iraq and Syria have come under at least 41 separate rocket and drone attacks since Oct. 17, following a more than six-month lull in hostilities. Iran-backed militias have increasingly threatened to ramp up their bombardments in recent weeks in response to Washington’s support for Israel’s war effort against Palestinian militants in Gaza. 

At least 46 coalition personnel have suffered what Pentagon officials described as “minor injuries,” including 25 personnel reporting symptoms of traumatic brain injuries.

The large majority of the injuries stemmed from attacks on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq and the al-Tanf garrison in southern Syria on Oct. 17-18, officials said. Nearly all of the attacks on various bases since then have been thwarted by US air defenses, American military officials have said.

“We have a range of options to defend ourselves,” the Pentagon’s top Middle East policy official, Dana Stroul, told House lawmakers on Wednesday.

“The United States is fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities. We urge against any escalation,” Austin said following the US strikes on Wednesday.

Cycle of violence: The US maintains some 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria for stabilization in the aftermath of the multinational campaign to destroy the Islamic State group. 

The Quds Force of Iran’s IRGC backs dozens of militias with tens of thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria as Tehran continues to aim to expel US forces from the region without sparking a regional war with the US, officials in Washington say.

A senior military official speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity described the facility targeted by the US aircraft on Wednesday as “a warehouse” located in Maysalun, in eastern Syria near the city of Deir Ezzor.

The military official, who observed the strike in real time via live feed, added that it was unclear whether any militia or IRGC personnel were present at the facility when the F-15s dropped their precision-guided payloads late on Wednesday night, resulting in what the official described as secondary explosions.

The timing of the strike was designed to inflict “the minimal number of casualties,” the official said, noting that there had been personnel on-site earlier during the day, but their nationalities were not known. 

“We are very certain that this did not involve civilian loss,” the senior US military official said.

Biden administration officials say they are prioritizing military deterrence and diplomatic efforts to prevent the spread of the Israel-Hamas conflict to other parts of the Middle East.

“By specifically targeting IRGC-associated facilities, we seek to convey a clear message to Iran that we hold it accountable for the attacks on US forces and we expect Iran to take measures to direct its proxies to stop,” a senior US defense official told reporters on Wednesday night.

“We’re combining this with very clear messaging through multiple channels. And the message is to senior Iranian leaders: We want you to direct your proxies and militia groups to stop attacking us,” the official said.

Yet a previous round of US airstrikes that destroyed two similar facilities in eastern Syria on Oct. 26 failed to halt the cycle of attacks.

The volleys by suspected Iran-backed militias against US bases in recent weeks have been relatively small-scale, with many involving just one or two drones or rockets. However, US officials say they appear designed to kill.

“At no point have the Iranian-aligned militia groups taken a shot at US forces where they had any idea of the numbers of casualties that they may or may not inflict,” the senior military official said.

“In all cases [they] were taking shots at what they believed to be very large numbers of US personnel with the intent of killing them,” the official added, without offering further detail.

Although Pentagon officials say nearly all the attacks have been successfully thwarted, one civilian contractor for the US military died of a “cardiac episode” after sirens sounded at the Ain al-Asad base in Iraq during a false alarm on Oct. 19.

US troops in Iraq and Syria came under at least six rocket and drone attacks over the weekend, resulting in no reported injuries or damage. 

On Wednesday, sirens sounded at the Union III facility in Baghdad, indicating incoming projectiles at the US embassy complex, two other military officials told Al-Monitor. As of publication time, the Pentagon had not confirmed whether a barrage had in fact targeted the embassy. 

“The suspected attack is still under investigation,” the official said.

One step further: Pentagon and White House officials have repeatedly vowed to hold Iran accountable for attacks by various militias linked to the IRGC.

Earlier on Wednesday, Stroul went further by publicly warning that the US military may target Iranian personnel in a bid to arrest the cycle of potentially lethal provocations.

“The United States has taken — and as necessary, will continue to take — military action against the IRGC and its affiliates,” Stroul told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing on Wednesday.

“This includes the use of force against IRGC and IRGC-affiliated personnel and facilities” in the Middle East “with the intention to convince the Iranians to de-escalate threats against the United States, our interests and our people,” Stroul said.

On Oct. 26, US F-16s dropped dozens of guided bombs on two facilities which Pentagon officials said were used by the IRGC and IRGC-affiliated groups in eastern Syria. US officials at the time said they did not assess any Iranian or militia personnel to have been killed in those strikes, which the Biden administration billed as defensive under Article II constitutional authorities.

In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs panel on Wednesday, Stroul said the Biden administration would consult lawmakers before launching military action against Iranian proxies if such action were to go beyond self-defense authorization under Article II.

Stroul also told committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.)  the administration would consult with Congress if the US military were to take action against Hezbollah in defense of Israel.

Groundhog Day: This isn’t the first time a senior Pentagon official has publicly threatened strikes on IRGC personnel.

Following the previous spate of militia attacks in Iraq and Syria in March, the Pentagon’s then-top general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, publicly called for strikes against the IRGC’s expeditionary Quds Force.

“That group there is what we need to be targeting, and targeting them very harshly over time, and that’s exactly what we plan on doing,” Milley, who is not in the chain of command, said in testimony before Senate lawmakers.

Despite the Biden adminstration’s best efforts to disentangle from Iran and its proxy networks, the hostilities continue to run deep nearly four years after former US president Donald Trump ordered the assasssination of then-IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike.

The inflamed hostilities in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza are putting Washington’s reputation as the security guarantor for US-aligned states in the Middle East to the test amid new threats by IRGC-front groups to attack US bases and embassies in Iraq and the Gulf.

Know more: The Biden administration has deployed a dizzying array of firepower to the Middle East in recent weeks in a bid to dissuade Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah from attacking Israel, the US and Arab states in the Gulf region which host American troops.

Washington has dispatched two aircraft carrier strike groups, additional fighter squadrons, a pair of B-1B strategic bombers, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Amphibious Ready Group as well as the USS Florida, a nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, to the region.

The USS Eisenhower, USS Florida, and elements of the amphibious ready group are currently in the Red Sea following attempts by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels to target Israel with cruise missiles fired from the southern Arabian peninsula.

A spokesperson for the Houthis on Wednesday said the group had shot down a US MQ-9 unmanned drone which they alleged was providing military support to Israel. A US official confirmed that a military MQ-9 was shot down over the Red Sea on Wednesday.

Despite the carnage inflicted by Israel’s relentless strikes in densely populated Gaza, Saudi Arabia remains open to eventually normalizing ties with the Jewish state — a top goal for Washington’s regional strategy — should serious progress be made towards a two-state solution.