After attacking Iran-backed militias, U.S. troops were shelled in Syria Reuters

Authors: Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON (Reuters)-U.S. troops were hit by rockets in Syria on Monday but were not injured, apparently in retaliation for the U.S. air strikes on Syrian and Iraqi-Iranian allied militias over the weekend.

A spokesman for the US military said that the US military was hit by multiple rockets, but did not provide details.

“No one was injured and damage is being assessed. We will provide an update when we have more information,” said Colonel Wayne Malotto.

Sources in Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, said an Iran-backed militia group fired several shells near the Omar oil field controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces backed by the United States.

The rockets highlighted the risk of escalation and the limitations of U.S. military fire restrictions on militias allied with Iran, which Washington blamed on a series of increasingly sophisticated drone attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq.

A few hours ago, US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken and the White House defended the US attacks in Iraq and Syria on Sunday as a way to contain the risk of conflict.

Brinken told reporters in Rome: “We have taken necessary, appropriate, and deliberate actions to limit the risk of escalation, and at the same time send a clear and clear deterrent message.”

The Iraqi militia formed an alliance with Iran in a statement that mentioned four members of the Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada faction who said they were killed in an attack on the border between Syria and Iraq. They vowed to retaliate.

But it is not yet clear who launched the latest salvo against the U.S. military.

The Iraqi government, worried about being involved in the US-Iran conflict, condemned the US attack on its territory and stated that it would “study all legal options” to prevent such actions from happening again. Syria described the attack as a “blatant violation of the sanctity of Syria and Iraq.”

The Iraqi military condemned the US air strikes. Iraqi and U.S. forces have closely coordinated in a separate fight in Iraq to combat the remnants of the Sunni extremist group ISIS.

This is the second time President Joe Biden has ordered retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed militias since he took office five months ago. In February, he ordered a limited strike in Syria in response to a rocket attack in Iraq.

Two U.S. officials, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that since April, Iran-backed militias have carried out at least five drone attacks on facilities used by U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq.

The Biden administration has been seeking the possibility of resuming the nuclear agreement reached with Iran in 2015. These attacks highlighted how Biden separated such defensive strikes while making diplomatic contacts with Tehran.

The White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that Iran is the bad guy in the region. He supports “extremely problematic behavior” but defended diplomatic outreach as a way to deny Tehran possessing nuclear weapons.

Biden’s critics say that Iran is not credible, and point out that the drone attack further proves that Iran and its proxies will never accept the U.S. military presence in Iraq or Syria.

Iran calls on the United States to avoid “creating a crisis” in the region.

Said Khatibzad, a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday: “Of course, the United States is undermining the security of the region, and the United States will become one of the victims of this destruction.”

(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Rome, Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Steve Holland in Washington, Suleiman Al-khalidi in Amman, and John Davison in Baghdad; editing by Howard Goller)