Just hours after U.S. fighter jets bombed facilities used by Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its proxies in Syria early Friday, the proxies fired back \u2014 launching an attack drone at U.S. forces in western Iraq.<\/p>\n
American air defenses shot down the drone a few miles from Al Asad Air Base, causing no injuries or damage on the ground, U.S. officials said on Friday. Pentagon officials also said that rockets were fired into northern Syria on Friday but landed far from American troops.<\/p>\n
Pentagon officials have attributed the attacks to Iran-backed militias.<\/p>\n
But the tit-for-tat raised questions about whether the airstrikes that were carried out after a flurry of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria can achieve one of their major goals: to deter further attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop,\u201d Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement after what he described as \u201cself-defense\u201d strikes.<\/p>\n
The airstrikes conducted by two Air Force F-16s and one F-15 were calibrated to send a strong message to Iran but not so strong as to escalate the hostilities, U.S. officials said. The targets were arms and ammunition storage buildings that supplied the Iran-backed militias involved in the recent attacks against Americans, Pentagon officials said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was our way of saying \u2018cut it out,\u2019 but no more than that,\u201d said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute in Washington. \u201cThe Iranians won\u2019t be deterred, of course, so this will likely prove to be the first step in several attempts to reinforce deterrence.\u201d<\/p>\n
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