Air strikes on Iran-linked targets ‘will draw quick response’

Tehran has condemned US air strikes on Iran-linked forces in Syria, which reportedly killed 19 people.

Washington said it carried out the attacks after a deadly drone attack on US forces.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry late on Saturday condemned “the belligerent and terrorist attack of the American army on civilian targets” in the eastern Syrian region of Deir Ezzor.

Two American military bases in eastern Syria were fired at on Friday night, a day after the US retaliated against earlier attacks with air strikes on Iran-backed armed groups in the region.

Three rockets were fired at a US base in eastern Syria, near Al Omar oilfield, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rockets were launched from areas controlled by pro-Iran militias in the town of Mayadin in Deir Ezzor province, the UK-based watchdog said.

The salvo hit houses at the base and a meeting hall of the international anti-ISIS coalition, causing material damage, with no reports of casualties.

The Observatory said Iranbacked militants also attacked another base hosting American forces in Syria’s Conoco gasfield.

The US bombed the positions of the militant groups in Deir Ezzor. Explosions were heard in the city, the Observatory said.

An Iranian security spokesman said strikes on Iran-linked bases in Syria would draw a quick response.

“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, spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by the semi-official media agency Nournews.

Iran said its forces and fighters are in Syria at the request of Damascus, and regards US forces as occupiers.

The US had earlier conducted “precision air strikes” on Iran-linked groups in the same province in response to a drone attack that killed an American contractor at a coalition base near Hasakah in Syria on Thursday.

Five US servicemen and another contractor were wounded in the attack

The Observatory said the death toll from the US strikes had risen to 19 people, including 11 Syrians.

Hours after the US strikes, 10 rockets were fired at American and coalition forces at the Green Village base in north-east Syria, the US Central Command said.

There were no injuries or damage to infrastructure at the base, but a rocket hit a home about five kilometres away, causing minor injuries to two women and two children, Centcom said.