Any attack on Iran-linked bases in Syria will be met with a swift response, an Iranian security spokesperson warned on March 25, following clashes between forces backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and United States troops in the war-torn country.
“Any pretext to attack bases created at the request of the Syrian government to deal with terrorism and Islamic State elements in this country will be met with an immediate counter-response,”
Keyvan Khosravi, spokesperson for Iran’s top security body, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Nournews agency.
Khosravi emphasized that Washington cannot link the “natural and legal” reaction of a country that is occupied by the U.S. military to other countries by creating “fabricated crises and lies.”
“Iran has suffered a lot in the battle against foreign-backed terrorism to reestablish durable security in Syria, and it opposes any action that endangers the stability of that country,” the spokesman said. “The United States role in creating and supporting ISIS as a proxy in line with its political objectives in Syria and Iraq is evident to everyone, and in the past two days, American helicopters with several sorties have transferred ISIL terrorists in Syria with the aim of increasing instability in the country, something that they have to be held to account for.”
The U.S. Central Commander launched on March 23 a series of strikes on several installations of Iranian-backed forces in the Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor in response to an earlier drone attack that hit a coalition base near the city of al-Hasakah.
The attack claimed the life of a U.S. contractor and left five U.S. service members and a second U.S. contractor wounded. The Pentagon said that the intelligence community had determined the drone used in the deadly attack was of Iranian origin.
In a statement, the Iranian Advisory Committee in Syria, said that the strikes had killed seven of their fighters and wounded seven others, without specifying the fighters’ nationality.
Iranian-backed forces responded to the strikes by firing rockets at the coalition’s Green Village base within the al-Omar oil fields in the southeastern Deir Ezzor countryside. The forces attacked the same base with suicide drones on March 24. On the same day, they also fired rockets at the Conoco gas plant in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside where U.S. troops are deployed. At least one service member was wounded.
President Joe Biden vowed to respond to any attack on U.S. troops in Syria. However, he said that his country is not looking for a conflict with Iran.
The Iranian warning came amid rumors of an imminent U.S. strikes on IRGC affiliates in Syria in response to the recent attacks on the Green Village and Conoco. While Tehran does not appear to be planning to escalate, there is no doubt that it will strike back in case of any new attack on its allies.
Source: South Front
