The White House said on Monday the United States would not back down from its nearly eight-year deployment in Syria, where it is battling Islamic State remnants, despite attacks on U.S. forces last week by Iranian-backed groups.
An attack drone targeted a U.S. base in Syria on March 23, killing one U.S. contractor and wounding another and five U.S. soldiers. U.S. forces responded with air strikes and exchanges of fire that Syrian sources said killed three Syrian soldiers, 11 fighters in pro-government factions and five non-Syrian militants.
White House spokesman John Kirby said the United States had not seen any further attacks or reactions in the past 36 hours in Syria, adding: "We will remain vigilant."
He referred to US President Joe Biden's remarks last Friday in which he warned Iran that the United States would take strong measures to protect Americans.
"There has been no change in the U.S. presence in Syria as a result of what has happened in the last few days," he said, adding that the mission against Islamic State would continue.
"It won't deter us. attacks by these armed groups."
Syria's Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned the U.S. strikes, saying Washington was lying about the targeted sites and stressed its commitment to ending what it called the "U.S. occupation."
Iran's Foreign Ministry also condemned the strikes and accused US forces of targeting "civilian sites".
It is noteworthy that US forces were deployed for the first time in Syria during the campaign of the administration of former US President Barack Obama, which targeted the Islamic State, in partnership with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces led and dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
About 900 U.S. troops are deployed in Syria, most of them in the east of the country. According to the US military, before the latest series of attacks in Syria, US forces were subjected to about 78 attacks from Iranian-backed groups since the beginning of 2021.