30 Mar 2023; MEMO: US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has said that Iran and its proxies have attacked US targets on 83 occasions since President Joe Biden entered the White House in January 2021. Austin made his comment during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington.
"Iran and its proxy forces have launched 83 attacks against US troops in Iraq and Syria since President Joe Biden took office," he explained. "In response, the US military has carried out four major operations against Iranian-backed groups."
Austin's remarks came days after the Pentagon reported that an American contractor was killed and five soldiers and a contractor were injured in a strike "of Iranian origin" against a coalition base in Hasakah, north-east Syria.
READ: Syria: explosions rock Damascus during Israeli air raid
Nineteen fighters, most of them from pro-Iran groups, were killed by US air strikes in eastern Syria overnight last Thursday in response to the drone strike that killed the American contractor. Washington insisted that it was not seeking an escalation with Tehran.
Last Friday night, pro-Iran fighters targeted bases where US forces are present, while the latter responded by carrying out new air strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reported that only material damage occurred.
Austin said that he was ordered by President Biden to authorise US military air strikes in Syria targeting infrastructure belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"The United States does not — does not, I emphasise — seek conflict with Iran," said Biden during a visit to Ottawa last Friday, "but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people."
