Pentagon officials won’t say how long they intend to continue striking Iran-backed proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, but insist they haven’t planned for an open-ended campaign and don’t want to see the fighting escalate.
On Monday, Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon that nearly 85 targets in Syria and Iraq were destroyed or rendered inoperable, including command posts, intelligence centers and ammunition bunkers, during Friday’s airstrikes.
The bombings were in response to a Jan. 28 drone attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan that killed three American soldiers and injured at least 40 others. Gen. Ryder said Friday’s mission was “the start of our response” and promised that “additional actions” would be taken.
“We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, but attacks on American forces will not be tolerated,” Gen. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said. “To be clear, our goal is not ‘OK, game on. Let’s just do this and go full-scale war against Iranian proxy groups in Iraq and Syria.’ That’s not what we’re there for.”
Gen. Ryder said several times during the press briefing that the U.S. isn’t aiming to escalate the fighting in the Middle East and doesn’t want a war with Iran. American military personnel in Syria and Iraq are there to support the international coalition against the Islamic State terrorists.
But Iraqi officials have increasingly chafed at the presence of more than 2,000 U.S. troops in their country, and talks have already begun on their eventual departure.
In addition to the airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. has targeted dozens of military missile and drone launching sites in Yemen used by Houthi forces. The goal is to reduce the terrorists’ ability to harass commercial ship traffic in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.
“They have a finite amount of capability. How much do they want to continue to sacrifice that capability for the sake of something which ultimately will fail?” Gen. Ryder said.