US carries out strikes against Iranian targets in Syria- Pentagon

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III addresses a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group ahead of a two-day NATO Defense Ministers Council at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 11, 2023. Olivier Matthys/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Thursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs, the Pentagon said, in response to a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in both Iraq and Syria.

"These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.