Biden officials say less strikes on Syria to come for meantime: NYT
The United States claims that it will not be waging aggression on Syria as John Kirby comes out and says Washington will respond to the recent attacks as it sees fit.
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US troops patrol in their military vehicles near the Syrian border on 17 December 2020 (Reuters)
The New York Times on Monday highlighted that the Biden administration was yet to respond to an attack that killed an American contractor and injured six other Americans in northeast Syria, which the US claimed was of "Iranian origin, President Biden’s response has so far been more restrained."
The newspaper drew parallels between the Biden administration's dealing with a contractor dying during an offensive in an occupied country and the Trump administration's dealing with the issue.
Two American F-15s retaliated Thursday by launching airstrikes on several sites, which prompted the armed groups in Syria to retaliate against the US occupation, launching a barrage of rockets, as well as drone attacks, on Friday, injuring another American.
NYT, citing US officials, reported that US warplanes were set to go for another round of bombings late Friday, but the White House held off.
The Biden administration on Monday underlined that its occupation forces were ready to respond to any new threats to US personnel, though they also seemed eager to move on and avoid escalation, the NYT claimed.
After the report, a result of the recent attacks on US bases in the country, US National Security Council Special Communications Coordinator John Kirby came out and underlined that the US would respond however it saw fit to the attacks that its forces are being subjected to in Syria.
He had said Monday that Washington made no changes to its military footprint in Syria as a result of the recent attacks on US bases in the country.
"There has been no change in the US footprint in Syria as a result of what happened over the last few days,” Kirby claimed during a press briefing.
"We're not going to be deterred from continuing to go after this network in Syria by these militant groups," Kirby underlined.
The US has for long employed the alleged "ISIS threat" as a pretext to continue its illegal occupation of northeastern Syrian territories.
US occupation forces frequently loot oil from Syrian gas fields and transport them to other occupation bases in Iraq via illegal crossings.
This became evident after Kibry claimed Friday that US strikes in Syria were aimed at protecting American personnel in the country, where Islamic State (IS) and what he called "Iran-backed militant groups" remain a threat.
