After ‘uptick’ in attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, Pentagon says it will ‘hold Iran accountable’
by Jamie McIntyre, Senior Writer
October 24, 2023 07:00 AM
‘WE WILL HOLD IRAN ACCOUNTABLE’: The movement of additional U.S. ships and missile defense systems to the Middle East is a direct response to the increased threat to U.S. troops in the region posed by Iranian-backed proxy forces, the Pentagon said Monday.
The latest attack came early yesterday when U.S. troops at an outpost in southeastern Syria along the border with Iraq came under fire from an early morning drone strike. “I can confirm that there was an attempted drone attack at Al-Tanf in Syria,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, told a group of reporters. “Two one-way attack drones taken down; no injuries to U.S. forces.”
“We have seen this increase in rocket and UAV attacks against our bases and our facilities in Iraq and Syria,” Ryder said. “We do know that there's been this uptick in drone and rocket attacks.”
“Let me be very clear about U.S. Forces in Iraq and Syria. They're there for one purpose and one purpose only. It's to support local partners who are in the lead to achieve the enduring defeat of ISIS, for no other purpose,” a senior defense official said at a later briefing. “So when we see this effort, which we will hold Iran accountable for and its proxies, to threaten and attack U.S. forces, what Iran is actually doing is giving space for ISIS to reconstitute and further destabilizing the region.”
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/after-uptick-in-attacks-on-us-forces-in-iraq-and-syria-pentagon-says-it-will-hold-iran-accountable
