The US has warned that its 30-minute strike in Iraq and Syria is just the beginning, after President Biden walked a fine line between all-out war in the region with strikes on 85 targets in seven locations.
The Pentagon unleashed a salvo of missiles on Iranian-backed militias on Friday evening, hitting four facilities in Syria and three in Iraq by B1 bombers.
Syria has warned that the attacks have “fueled the conflict in the Middle East in a very dangerous way.”
While the Iraqi government confirmed that the attacks killed sixteen people, including civilians, and claimed that the US government had not informed them of their attack plan.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 18 people were killed in the attacks on Syria.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has suggested that this targeted retaliation was just the beginning.
President Biden echoed this sentiment, saying the overnight strikes were just the beginning.
The Pentagon unleashed a volley of missiles on Iranian-backed militias on Friday evening. Here you can see the ruins of a building in Iraq.
A destroyed building is pictured at the site of a US airstrike in Al-Qaim, Iraq, February 3, 2024
Friday’s attacks came in response to a deadly drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers last Sunday.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and Iraq war veteran, said CNN: ‘I think it’s a very strong deterrent. We say: listen, we don’t want to go to war. But have a taste of what we can do.
‘Please. Eighty-five targets. And I think that’s part of the balancing act that we have to do right now.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the overnight operation was “yet another strategic mistake by the US government, which will have no other result than an intensification of tension and instability.”
With tensions high in light of the war between Israel and Hamas, both Damascus and Baghdad joined Tehran in accusing Washington of undermining the stability of the region.
Hamas, whose unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel has fueled the current spiral of violence in the region, accused Washington of adding “fuel to the fire.”
US-Iraq relations have deteriorated in recent months after Washington carried out earlier airstrikes on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq in response to a wave of attacks on US-led forces since the start of the Gaza war last October.
Images shared on social media showed a series of explosions in the city of Al-Qaim: the first explosions from the US bombs, and then the secondary explosions from the exploding munitions.
Explosions are seen in the Iraqi city of Al-Qaim: the site is believed to be a weapons depot for Al Hashed al Shabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)
A plane is seen taking off in a video on X shared by CENTCOM – US Central Command
Al-Qaim Mayor Turki Al-Mahalawi said the attacks hit three houses used as weapons depots by the PMU: al Hashed al Shabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The PMU is backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is believed by Washington to be responsible for many of the 165 attacks carried out on US sites and personnel in the region since October 7.
The United States has about 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of an international coalition against the Islamic State, a jihadist organization that once controlled parts of both countries.
Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Iraqi armed forces, said the attacks were a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”
“The city of Al-Qaim and the Iraqi border areas are being subjected to air strikes by US aircraft, at a time when Iraq is doing everything it can to ensure the stability of the region,” Rasool said, according to CNN.
“These attacks are considered a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, making them a threat that could drag Iraq and the region into undesirable consequences. The consequences will be disastrous for security and stability in Iraq and the region.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said U.S. warplanes “struck more than 85 targets at seven facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the militant groups they sponsor,” three of them in Iraq and four in Syria.
In a statement, President Biden said: “Our response began today. It will take place at times and places of your choosing.”
Two B-1 bombers flew from the US for the mission and hit seven facilities – three in Iraq and four in Syria – linked to the IRGC and Iranian-backed militias
Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia (left) and Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, were killed in the drone strike on a US air base in Jordan
Specialist Breonna Moffett, 23, from Savannah, Georgia, has been identified as one of the soldiers killed in the drone strike
Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official in the Trump administration, told The New York Times that the US strikes appeared to target Iranian supply lines, which run through Iraq and Syria.
Mulroy said he believed it was unlikely that many Iranian soldiers would have been killed because Iran had time to move its personnel out of harm’s way – likely a deliberate move by the US to avoid unnecessary escalation.
The New York Times reported that a location in the Iraqi city of Akashat was also hit, describing the target as a PMU command headquarters.
The PMU is just part of a coalition of Iranian-backed groups that call themselves the “Axis of Resistance” and claim they are attacking US targets in response to Washington’s support for Israeli action in Gaza.
Analysts say Tehran is taking advantage of the chaos and warn that the US must walk a fine line between responding to the deaths of the three soldiers and plunging into war with Iran.
The bodies of three slain American soldiers were returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware
Sims said the US was “very confident” in the accuracy of its attacks, saying they had been a success.
He said: Early indications are that we hit exactly what we wanted to hit, with a number of secondary explosions linked to the ammunition and logistics sites. We know there are militants using these locations.
“We carried out these attacks tonight with the understanding that there would likely be casualties associated with people who were in those facilities.”
Senator Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he supported the strikes.
“This was a strong, proportionate response,” said Reed, a Democrat representing Rhode Island.
“In fact, the 85 targets hit tonight mark a larger number than the previous administration. Iran’s proxy forces in Syria and Iraq have been dealt a major blow, and Iranian-affiliated militias in the Middle East must understand that they too will be held accountable.”