US preparing for Iranian retaliatory strike, American troops face constant threat

The White House has warned of the substantial threat faced by U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria amid a stream of threats issued by Iranian leadership in response to a suspected Israeli airstrike that killed several Iranian personnel last week near its embassy in Damascus.
Addressing the warnings at a virtual press briefing, National Security Council Strategic Communicators Coordinator John Kirby declined to go into specific intelligence matters but reiterated President Joe Biden's assurances that "the Israeli government could count on the United States' support for any self-defense needs against threats directly by Iran to Israel, threats that Iran has made public," and discussed preparations for potential risks to U.S. personnel as well.
"Our own people, not just our troops, but our diplomatic personnel as well in Iraq and Syria, are under constant threat," Kirby said. "We take that seriously and we take the appropriate force protection measures we need to as the threat changes to make sure that they can protect themselves, and that has not changed. That will not change.
"We're continuing to do that. But we take the threat to our people in our own facilities seriously and we know that that those groups, many of the groups that conduct those kinds of attacks, are supported, funded, resourced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps."
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is one of three primary branches of the Iranian Armed Forces, along with the army, which, like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, includes ground, naval, air and missile branches, and the Law Enforcement Force. Branded a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 2019, the IRGC and its elite Quds Force conduct operations abroad and coordinate with an international coalition of militias known as the "Axis of Resistance," including in Iraq and Syria.
Such groups have targeted Israel and U.S. troops since the war in the Gaza Strip erupted six months ago between the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinian Hamas movement, and Israel has targeted Iran-aligned units in Syria as part of a years-long, semi-covert campaign.