While the Arab world is unifying behind the principle of normalizing relations with Syria, the U.S. military is still illegally occupying parts of the country. The U.S. conducted “precision air strikes” in Syria after a drone, alleged to be Iranian, attacked U.S. troops on the ground in northeastern Syria, wounding five soldiers and killing a U.S. contractor. “At the direction of President Biden, I authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, speaking as if the U.S. occupiers had the absolute right of self-defense in Syria, said in a statement issued from the Pentagon. “The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC.” The Associated Press cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting that the U.S. air strikes killed 8 people in the Euphrates River valley near the Iraqi border, all said to be Iranians.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who sponsored a privileged resolution in the House of Representatives requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria earlier this month, denounced the air strikes in a statement posted today on Twitter:
