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The U.S. military said it had targeted two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq and facilities for storing weapons.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi has been condemned overnight US air attack According to Iraq-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria, a monitor said it killed at least seven fighters.
The U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday he said He targeted operational facilities and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq in the face of attacks by U.S. personnel and drones on Iraqi facilities.
The attacks came at the behest of U.S. President Joe Biden, who has ordered retaliatory attacks against Iran-backed militias since he took office five months ago.
“We condemn the US air strike on a border between Iraq and Syria last night, which is a clear and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security,” the Iraqi prime minister’s office said.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada are among the “several military groups in Iran’s defense” that have used the facilities.
“The United States took the necessary, appropriate and deliberate measures to limit the risk of escalation – but also to send a clear and unequivocal message of deterrence,” Kirby said, adding that the targets were selected because “Iran uses these facilities. protective militias operating in vehicles [UAV] Attacks on US workers and Iraqi facilities. ”
No one was killed or injured in the statement, but the UK Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least seven fighters were killed and several others injured.
The Syrian state news agency SANA said one child had been killed and at least three others injured.
The threat of revenge
Officials from two Iraqi militias told The Associated Press in Baghdad that four militants had been killed in airstrikes near the Syrian border.
Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada faction members who joined Iran have named four members of the Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada faction dead in an attack on the Syrian-Iraqi border. They pledged to take revenge.
“We will continue to be the coat of arms that defends our beloved nation, and we are fully prepared … to respond and take revenge,” he said.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been more than 40 attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq, where 2,500 U.S. soldiers are deployed as part of the international coalition to fight the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh also attacked the attackers.
“The US is still on the wrong track in the region. What we see today is not only the sanctions, but also the continuation of the wrong policies of the previous administration with the actions they are taking in the region, ”Khatibzadeh said.
Mahmoud Abdelwahed of Al Jazeera, Baghdad’s Iraqi capital, said he described the U.S. attacks as “significant”.
“The PMF has said it will attack American military installations with missiles. Politicians associated with the PMF have also been tweeting, saying the United States only understands the current language, ”he said.
“We know that these groups are accusing the United States of not withdrawing from Iraq and of failing to comply with the Iraqi House of Representatives decision,” he added, referring to a parliamentary resolution passed in January last year that called for all foreign troops. to leave the country behind the US Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general, was killed.
Biden and the White House denied the allegations.
Former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Lawrence Korb said the raids could be seen “definitely” giving Biden Iran a “warning” as negotiations continue to revive their nuclear deal with world power.
“It was about a month after the first time he used military force was inaugurated,” Korbe told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think it was an accident then for Iran to send that signal. He says he’s doing it now while they’re going to do the seventh round of talks on the JCPO: ‘Just because we’re there doesn’t mean we’re going to ignore that. [other issues]’. “
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