Washington, February 25 (RHC)-- The U.S. military has carried out attacks on facilities in eastern Syria, supposedly used by what they called "Iran-backed militia" on Thursday.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement: “At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria.” 

“These strikes were authorised in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” he said.

Kirby claimed the strikes destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).  It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

The U.S. move came after an attack nearly two weeks ago on the main military base inside the airport in Erbil, which killed one foreign civilian contractor -- also known as mercenaries -- and wounded at least nine others, including an U.S. army soldier.  U.S. troops have been deployed inside Syrian territory despite the firm rejection of Damascus.