A US base in Syria near the Iraqi border has been struck by rocket fire, an Iraqi security source has told Sputnik.
"The US military base in Deir ez-Zor on the border with Iraq came under rocket fire today. Several rockets fell in the vicinity of the base without causing damage," the source said.
The attack did not result in any casualties, the source said.
CENTCOM, the unified combatant command responsible for US military operations in the Middle East, announced earlier that the US warplanes had carried out airstrikes targeting "infrastructure facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps."
"These precision strikes are intended to defend and protect US forces from attacks such as the ones on 15 August against US personnel by Iran-backed groups," CENTCOM spokesman Joe Buccino said, referring to a rocket attack last week targeting a facility where US forces are housed. The rocket strike did not cause any injuries, according to US officials.
President Biden was said to have signed off on Tuesday's strikes personally. On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price told CNN that Washington was "watching" the situation "very closely" and was prepared to conduct fresh attacks if necessary.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani slammed the US over the strikes, characterizing them as a "terrorist action," and dismissing Washington's claims about the targeted militias' supposed links to Iran.
Kanaani also blasted the US over its continued violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and emphasized that US troops' continued occupation of wide swathes of the country's northeast runs in contravention of international law. The spokesman characterized the US's 'counterterrorism' pretext for its presence of Syria as a "mere excuse" for occupation.
The United States has been occupying chunks of Syria since 2016, hindering the nation's ability to rebuild from a deadly, decade-long foreign-backed conflict. Syrian officials estimate that the US and its Syrian Kurdish allies control some 90 percent of the country's oil resources, and some of its richest agricultural lands. Syrian media report regularly on the US smuggling of food and oil out of the country via illegal crossing routes into Iraq, and the sneaking of convoys of military equipment and supplies in via the same routes.
Unlike President Donald Trump, who openly admitted that US troops were in eastern Syria to "take" and "keep the oil," the Biden administration has kept mum on American forces' activities in the country, and has denied allegations that the US is engaged in illegal smuggling or that US troops are guarding oil and gas wells. Syrian President Bashar Assad praised Trump in 2019, saying it was good to at least have "an honest enemy" who doesn't cover up US imperialism in Syria with pretty slogans.
Syria, which enjoyed modest self-sufficiency from its oil, gas and agricultural resources before a foreign-backed conflict broke out in 2011, has been forced to rely on Russian and Iranian food and energy assistance amid US and European efforts to smother the country through sanctions and occupation.