White House: Despite fatal strikes, the US will not abandon its role in Syria

 Despite attacks on American personnel there last week by Iran-backed militia, the United States will not withdraw from its almost eight-year-old deployment to Syria where it is combating the remains of Daesh, the White House said on Monday, according to Reuters.

On March 23, a one-way attack drone that was flying overhead bombed a US base in Syria, killing one American contractor, injuring another, and wounding five US soldiers.

A Syrian war monitoring organization reported that as a result of American retaliatory airstrikes and gunfights, three Syrian soldiers, 11 Syrian militiamen, and five foreign combatants who supported the regime were all killed.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, stated that while he was not aware of any new attacks over the previous 36 hours, "We're going to keep cautious."

Kirby also brought up President Joe Biden's Friday speech, in which he warned Iran that the US will use an action to save its citizens.

As a result of the events of the previous few days, Kirby stated that "there has been no change in the US footprint in Syria," adding that the mission against Daesh would go on as planned.

"These attacks from these extremist groups are not going to dissuade us."

Syria's Foreign Ministry denounced US strikes on its soil on Sunday, accusing Washington of lying about what it was targeting, and vowed to "end the American occupation."

During the Obama administration's war against Daesh, American forces entered Syria for the first time in cooperation with the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led organization. About 900 US soldiers are present in Syria, the majority of them in the east.

Prior to the most recent wave of strikes, the US military reported that Iranian-backed groups have assaulted US troops in Syria 78 times since the year 2021.

Throughout the 12-year conflict in Syria, Iran has been a major supporter of Bashar Al-Assad.

Hezbollah and other pro-Iran Iraqi forces, as well as other Iranian proxy militias, control large portions of eastern, southern, and northern Syria, as well as the suburbs surrounding Damascus.