The United States will not back away from its nearly eight-year-old deployment to Syria, where it is battling the remnants of Islamic State, despite attacks on U.S. forces there last week by Iran-backed militia, the White House said on Monday.
A one-way attack drone struck a U.S. base in Syria on March 23, killing an American contractor, injuring another and wounding five U.S. troops.
That triggered U.S. retaliatory air strikes and exchanges of fire that a Syrian war monitoring group said killed three Syrian troops, 11 Syrian fighters in pro-government militias and five non-Syrian fighters who were aligned with the government.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said he was not aware of any additional attacks over the past 36 hours but cautioned, “We’re going to stay vigilant.”
Kirby also referred to President Joe Biden’s remarks on Friday, in which Biden warned Iran that the United States would act forcefully to protect Americans.
“There’s been no change in the U.S. footprint in Syria as a result of what happened the last few days,” Kirby said, adding the mission against Islamic State would continue.
via Reuters
