Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) sounded the alarm about the consequences of the recent strikes on U.S. bases in Syria.
Gallagher made the comments on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, saying the U.S. must take a stronger policy of deterrence against Iran after Iranian-backed militias exchanged fire with U.S. military installations in the region on Thursday and Friday.
“We should be concerned that our deterrent posture vis-a-vis Iran is crumbling,” said Gallagher. “We can’t afford another failure of deterrence like that, which we saw in Ukraine.”
U.S. and Iranian-backed militias traded blows late last week. First, on Thursday, an Iranian drone attack struck a maintenance facility for coalition forces near Hasakah in northeast Syria. Five service members were wounded, and one U.S. contractor was killed. On Thursday night, the U.S. launched retaliatory airstrikes against the militias affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Those airstrikes killed eight militants.
Then on Friday, the militias attacked again. The groups fired missiles at a U.S. military base near the Al-Omar oil field on Friday, though no injuries were reported. On Friday evening, at least 20 missiles were fired at another U.S. base in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, with at least eight missiles making contact. One U.S. service member was injured in the attack.
Militant attacks on U.S. forces are common in Syria. Since 2021, the Pentagon estimates that Iran-backed groups have carried out 78 attacks on U.S. troops in the country. The U.S. military has more than 900 troops and hundreds more contractors in Syria working with Kurdish fighters to ensure that the Islamic State, which controlled much of Syria and Iraq in 2014, cannot rebuild itself, according to The New York Times.
Though the Islamic State has been pushed from most of its territory, pockets of terror groups still exist and continue to attack coalition forces.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
Tim Pearce contributed to this report.