The US destroyed or damaged 84 out of 85 targets in its sweeping series of airstrikes on Friday in Syria and Iraq, according to two US defense officials, with no indications of Iranian casualties.
All but one of the 85 targets were “destroyed or functionally damaged,” the officials said, citing a preliminary battlefield damage assessment.
A complete post-strike analysis is still underway, but one official said there are no indications that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed as part of the operations.
President Joe Biden told reporters traveling with him to Nevada Sunday that the strikes are working to deter and disrupt militant groups’ operations in the region.
In response to a drone attack that killed three US service members and wounded scores more in Jordan last weekend, the US targeted facilities and weapons used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
It marked the first time the US has carried out strikes in both countries simultaneously. In Iraq, the US targeted al-Qaim and Akashat near the border with Syria. And in Syria, the US struck near al-Barum, Deir ez-Zur and al-Mayadin. The target list included command and control centers, intelligence centers, rockets, missile, drone storage facilities and more.
On Friday, in a briefing with reporters after the strikes, Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Staff, said the targets were chosen “with an idea that there would likely be casualties associated with people inside those facilities.”
The Biden administration has faced criticism that it waited too long to respond to the deadly drone strike in Jordan, which gave the Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria time to move their personnel. Sims said on…
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