US says no casualties from strike on Iran-linked site

Washington, United States (AFP) - The US does not currently believe its strike on an Iran-linked weapons storage site in Syria resulted in casualties, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Two American warplanes hit the site in Syria's Deir Ezzor province the day before in an operation that US officials said was in response to attacks on the country's troops in the Middle East.

"As of right now, we are not assessing that there were any casualties," Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists.

That assessment contradicts a report the previous day from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, which said the strike killed nine people affiliated with Iran-backed groups.

The US military also hit two facilities in Syria on October 26 that it said were used by Iran and affiliated organizations, and likewise assessed that those strikes did not cause casualties.

Singh said there have been a total of 46 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17 -- including four after the Wednesday strike that was aimed at deterring such actions.

The attacks have caused minor injuries to a total of 56 people, she added.

The United States is striving to deter Iran and its proxies from turning fighting between Israel and Hamas into a regional war, but the repeated attacks and strikes in response risk a conflict between Washington and Tehran.

The surge in attacks on US troops in recent weeks is linked to the war between Israel and Hamas, which began when the Palestinian militant group carried out a shock cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.

Israel's military responded with a relentless air, land and naval assault on Gaza that the territory's health ministry said has left more than 10,800 people dead.

There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group.

The jihadists once held significant territory in both countries but were pushed back by local ground forces supported by international air strikes in a bloody, multi-year conflict.