The U.S. military carried out more strikes on Iran-backed facilities in Syria, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. 

“U.S. military forces conducted precision strikes today on facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran-affiliated groups in response to continued attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “The strikes were conducted against a training facility and a safe house near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin, respectively.”

It was the third time in as many weeks that the U.S. military has struck sites in Syria that the Pentagon says are tied to Iran-backed militias. 

On Thursday, two F-15 fighter jets dropped multiple bombs on a weapons warehouse in Syria that Defense officials said was known to be used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The strikes are in response to attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East, of which there have been at least 46 since October 17 following Hamas’ terror attack on Israel ten days earlier that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Some 56 U.S. personnel have been injured in those attacks, according to the Pentagon, with injuries ranging from minor wounds to traumatic brain injury. 

A senior defense official called Iran “the center of gravity” for the attacks on U.S. forces in the region. And Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh has warned, “If these attacks continue against our personnel, we won’t hesitate at a time and place of our choosing to respond again.”

Singh has asserted that the U.S. is carrying out “proportionate” responses while seeking to not escalate the Israel-Hamas war. 

“We want to make sure we can contain this conflict to Israel and Hamas and we have not seen this conflict widen,” she said following last Thursday’s airstrikes. “We are sending a message and I think the message has been received.”

PHOTO: F-15 Strike Eagle in 2020

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