A senior US defence official has said a strike on an Iran-linked weapons storage facility in eastern Syria was being combined “with very clear messaging through multiple channels. And the message is, to Iranian senior leaders, ‘We want you to direct your proxies and militia groups to stop attacking us’.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the Wednesday strike killed nine people affiliated with Iran-backed groups, AFP reports.

A senior American military official said the site in Deir Ezzor province had been under surveillance so the United States could select a time to carry out the strike with “a minimal number of casualties” but that it may have caused some nonetheless.

“We were tracking just a couple (people) max that we don’t have any confirmation of just prior to the strike,” the official said.