After the missile attack, US attack helicopters returned fire and destroyed three vehicles as well as the equipment used to launch the rockets, according to the Central Command. Initial estimates indicate that two or three people involved in the attacks were killed. “We have a full range of capabilities to mitigate threats across the region, and we have complete confidence in our ability to protect our troops and our partners from attack,” said Gen. Michael “Eric” Kurila, commander of the U.S. Central Command. USA. Earlier Wednesday, a senior Pentagon official said the US would work to defend service members and their capabilities in the region. “We will not hesitate to defend ourselves,” Colin Cull, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters Wednesday. “We will not tolerate attacks by Iranian-backed forces against our forces anywhere in the world, including in Syria, and we will not hesitate to protect ourselves and take additional measures as appropriate.” The military exchanges come at a critical time for US-Iranian relations as some progress has been made in reviving the Iran nuclear deal, aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. But the airstrikes appeared to send a clear message that deal or no deal, the US will continue to respond to Iranian provocations. President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered airstrikes against Iran-backed groups in Syria, a little more than a week after a number of rockets struck near the Green Village airbase near the Iraqi border. The strike targeted 11 warehouses used for munitions storage and logistical support by Iran-backed groups in Syria, said Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for the US Central Command. But just before CENTCOM carried out the strike, the military removed two more from the shelters because of a small group of people nearby. In the end, Buccino said the military hit nine warehouses in the compound in eastern Syria. The US said the airstrikes were in response to attacks on US forces a week ago, when the At-Tanf garrison in Syria was hit by a drone and a second base was hit by rockets. Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks, but they fit the pattern of other such attacks the US has attributed to Iranian-backed proxies and militias in Syria. At the time of last week’s attacks, the coalition did not say who was responsible for any of the attacks The US maintains about 900 troops in Syria, largely split between the At-Tanf base and the country’s eastern oil fields. CNN’s Paul LeBlanc, Hamdi Alkhshali, Natasha Bertrand, Devan Cole, Ellie Kaufman and Michael Callahan,
