Kirby says US strikes on Iran proxies in Syria were ‘self-defense’

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Friday that the United States’s strikes on Iran proxies in Syria were made in self-defense.

Kirby spoke with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday morning after President Biden ordered U.S. military forces to carry out “self-defense airstrikes” on a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage area used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated groups in eastern Syria.

The strike hit early Friday local time; U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 19 times in the Middle East since last week.

“Well, these strikes were very much done in self-defense. As you know, our forces and facilities had come under a range of attacks, rocket attacks, largely by these proxy groups, but they’re backed by Iran, in Iraq and in Syria,” Kirby told ABC. 

“These strikes were in self-defense for our ability to protect ourselves and our troops. I mean, they went right at targets that were tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. That is resourcing, funding, training, and making capable all these proxy groups. These two targets went right at their storage facilities, weapons facilities, that kind of thing, to try to get at their ability to do exactly that,” he added.

The attacks against U.S. and coalition forces included four times in Syria and 12 times in Iraq — with three new attacks Thursday.

The U.S. has not provided evidence as to who is to blame for the assaults, which have consisted of a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets, but claims that Iran is behind them.