Nearly 60 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria
The U.S. says deterrence is working with Iran, and on Sunday the military struck two facilities used by Iran and Iranian-backed militant groups in Syria.
Defense officials tell VOA Iranian-backed militants have attacked U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria at least 56 times in less than a month, with at least five attacks happening after the Sunday strikes.
“Is deterrence working? We feel that it is," said Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh. "We have not seen this war spread into a wider regional conflict. The strikes that we are taking is to signal and to message very strongly to Iran and their affiliated groups to stop. That is the purpose of those strikes.”
Singh acknowledged that Iranian-affiliated groups have continued to attack American troops, but said the U.S. strategy is working.
"I think we are being very deliberate on how and when we conduct our strikes against these groups," she said. "And I think that Iran is certainly seeing that message.”
More than 50 Americans suffered minor injuries to traumatic brain injuries from the attacks before returning to duty, officials say.
A bipartisan group of senators told reporters Tuesday the U.S. is lucky that no Americans have died from the attacks and called for a stronger response against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
“If Iran continues to threaten our troops in Syria and Iraq, the right response militarily would be in my view to hit the IRGC training bases and infrastructure inside of Iran," said Senator Lindsey Graham.
Retired General Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, tells VOA the message America sent by its reduction of forces in the region has left Iran emboldened.
“Their primary goal remains the ejection of the United States from the region. And that's the reason these attacks are spiking up,” he said.
Two defense officials have confirmed to VOA that a drone crashed into a barracks housing U.S. troops last month at Irbil Air Base. It failed to detonate, but one official said if the drone had exploded, several troops could have been injured or killed.