WASHINGTON, March 24 (KUNA) -- The United States declared on Friday that it is not seeking war with Iran or armed conflicts with any other party in the Middle East.
"We're not looking for an armed conflict with that country (Iran), or another war in the region. We do seek to protect our mission in Syria, which is about defeating ISIS (the so-called Islamic State, IS), and we do seek to make sure we can protect our people and our facilities against these Iran-backed groups," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby in an interview with the CNN.
He noted presence of militant groups in Syria that "Iran is funding, resourcing, even training, and they've got facilities there." Kirby said that these groups were behind an attack on a base of the international coalition near Hasaka, northern Syria, late on Thursday, where an American contractor was killed and five US military servicemen were wounded. The attack was said to have been launched with a drone "of Iranian origin." Iran and the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guards, have facilities there in Syria from which a lot of that resourcing and training and facilitation occurs, Kirby said.
He revealed that the American forces retaliated for the attack, late on Thursday. (end) rsr.rk