On the evening of June 27, the United States launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on targets of armed groups supported by Iran. Targets belonging to the Iraqi radical Shiite formations Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada were hit. The Pentagon reported that these measures were taken by order of US President Joe Biden in response to attacks by militants on American bases in Iraq.

In turn, a day later militants supported by Iran and part of the pro-government forces in Syria fired missiles at US military positions in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, and US troops returned fire. Attacks by pro-Iran groups in Iraq continued against US targets in Iraq this week. In Deir ez-Zor, American servicemen supporting the activities of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are actually on the line of contact with pro-Iranian groups, including ones designated as terrorist groups by the United States, which are allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and control a large area of the country comprising the territory between the cities of Al-Bukamal and Al-Mayadin on the right bank of the Euphrates River.

The presence of pro-Iranian radical Shiite groups, primarily foreign ones, in Syria in the ranks of the Assad regime forces once again raises the question of the "toxicity" of such a presence for the Russian military performing their mission in Syria. This poses a threat to attacks on Syrian territory by the United States, which, in response to attacks in Iraq, will try to eliminate these militants wherever they are, including in Syria. In addition, attempts by pro-Iranian structures to carry out retaliatory attacks on Syrian territory in the form of shelling of American military facilities located in the trans-Euphrates region can create even more risks for the Russian military, which can often find themselves in close proximity to the targets of American attacks.

Russia, despite the often hostile rhetoric against the United States, does not really intervene in the confrontation between the American military and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and various pro-Iranian international structures under its control operating in Iraq and Syria. The same applies to the conflict between Syria and Iran on the one hand and Israel on the other. The latter is also viewed as a strategic partner of Moscow in the Middle East. On the contrary, Russia would like to avoid negative consequences for itself from such an escalation.