The Pentagon confirmed that the US military had conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria.
"At President (Joe) Biden's direction, US military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria," the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.
"These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel," it said, adding the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups.
Thursday's airstrikes also came at a time when the Biden administration, which reportedly plans to bring the United States back to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that the Donald Trump administration pulled out of, said it was ready to engage in negotiations with Iran over the nuclear issue.
Syrian govt condemns US overnight strike
The Syrian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the US strikes that targeted positions in eastern Syria before Friday's daybreak, state news agency SANA reported.The US strikes in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour near the Iraqi border killed 22 pro-Iran Iraqi fighters who were providing support for the Syrian government forces, according to the pro-rebel Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Xinhua news agency reported.
The attack undermines the international legitimacy in resolving the Syrian crisis and is part of the repeated aggression by the United States, Israel and Turkey on the sovereignty of Syria, the foreign ministry said.
Such attacks will only spread chaos, destroy the infrastructure in Syria, and play into the hands of the terrorist groups in Syria, it added.
The ministry accused Washington of supporting the Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in order for a pretext for the presence of US forces in Syria.
It also highlighted the Syrian government's determination to liberate all Syrian areas from the forces of occupation, including the areas controlled by the Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Iran vows to continue supports for Syria in anti-terror war
Iran will keep supporting the Syrian government in the fight against terrorism, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a telephone conversation with the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Friday.
Zarif reaffirmed that the Islamic Republic will continue its supports for Syria in various fields and in its efforts to ensure security and stability across Syria, the Xinhua news reported.
The Iranian foreign minister also stressed the need for a solution that preserves the interests, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Arab country.
For his part, Mekdad thanked Iran for supporting the Syrian people in the economic arena with the purpose of mitigating the effects of unilateral economic sanctions.
The two sides also urged the western states to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, said the report.
The conversation between the two senior officials of the regional allies followed US air strikes that killed at least 22 pro-Iran fighters in eastern Syria on Friday morning.
