On Thursday US President Joe Biden ordered a number of air strikes against facilities in Syria belonging to militias that the Pentagon claims are supported by the Iranian regime. The attacks were in response to the recent rocket attacks on the US embassy in Iraq by Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq.
Syrian state-owned media, which is traditionally hostile to the United States, claimed the strikes had killed 17 people, but this total was not confirmed by other sources according to Reuters.
“At President Biden’s direction, US military forces earlier this evening conducted air strikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
These strikes come as the Biden administration is attempting to restart negotiations with the Iranian regime over its nuclear weapons program. Trump left the “Iran Deal” after his first year in office. The “Iran Deal” an agreement between Iran, the US, and multiple European countries which sought to limit Iranian nuclear ambitions. However the Trump administration accused the Iranians of cheating on the deal, and tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated significantly since. Both sides have launched attacks on each other, including the US killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and a number of attacks on the US embassy in Iraq, allegedly by Iran-backed militias.