US forces launched another airstrike on targets in Syria
Deir al Zour, Syria - The US air force bombed new positions manned by militias loyal to Iran in eastern Syria for the second time in 24 hours, the US military's Central Command and a monitoring group said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Thursday's airstrikes targeting posts in the countryside of Deir al Zour, resulted in the deaths of three Iran-backed militia fighters.
The US Central Command initially put the death toll at three, but Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder later confirmed another death, bringing the death toll to four.
The bombings were a response to coordinated militia rocket attacks on two US Army facilities in the region.
On Wednesday, the US air force also attacked positions in Deir al Zour manned by a group of Shiite fighters from Afghanistan. The SOHR said six people were killed in Wednesday's strikes.
"The strike was necessary to protect and defend US personnel in Syria, which had been the targets of several recent attacks by Iran-backed militia groups," top Pentagon official Colin Kahl said Wednesday in Washington.
US soldiers were fired on several times by the militias, he claimed.
"This operation is a demonstration [that] the United States will not hesitate to defend itself against Iranian and Iran-backed aggression when it occurs," Kahl said.
US and Iran in Syrian proxy conflict
Ryder said the groups were testing how far they could push the US and seeing how the US would respond, adding that he thought US forces had sent a very clear answer. He added that he hoped the recent exchange would bring an end to such attacks.
Syria is becoming the site of a proxy conflict between the US and Iran, while the two powers attempt to negotiate resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal.
US forces were deployed to Syria in 2015 to assist the Syrian Kurds and their other allies in the fight against Islamic State.
Iran has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main backer since 2011.
The was no official comment from the Syrian government on the strikes.
Cover photo: DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP