Noah Rothman
National Review, Nov. 9, 2023
“An Israeli campaign that successfully defangs the Iran-backed Hamas would be a dramatic event likely sufficient to compel Tehran to rethink its region-wide campaign of violence.”
On Wednesday night, two American F-15 fighter jets executed a strike on targets inside Syria that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said had been used by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force affiliates. The attacks were, he added, “a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria,” but the strikes also occurred just hours after the Pentagon confirmed that the Houthi militia group operating in Yemen had shot down a $30 million MQ-9 Reaper drone.
This latest round of strikes on Iran-backed targets inside Syria follows President Joe Biden’s October 26 decision to approve an aerial attack on Syrian targets linked to the IRGC “and other affiliated groups.” That attack was a belated response to the dozens of attacks on U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed Shiite militia groups, some of which the Pentagon admitted had produced U.S. casualties. “Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces,” Austin said. “If attacks by Iran’s proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.”
Since the 10/7 massacre in Israel, there have been at least 41 Iran-backed drone and rocket attacks on American positions, and no fewer than 45 U.S. service personnel have been injured in those attacks — “more than twice as many as the Pentagon previously disclosed,” according to NBC News. Every indication suggests that the attacks on Western assets by Iranian proxy forces will continue apace, notwithstanding the Biden administration’s belated Syria strikes.
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