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The US military stated that its targets are combat and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Khadmi condemned U.S. air strikes overnight An inspector of Iran-backed Iraqi and Syrian armed groups claimed that these groups killed at least seven fighters.
In a statement on Sunday, the U.S. military Say It targets combat and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq in response to drone attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq.
These attacks were carried out under the direction of US President Joe Biden, and this is the second time he has ordered retaliatory attacks against Iranian-backed militias since he took office five months ago.
The Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying: “We condemn the US airstrike at a location on the Iraq-Syrian border last night. This is a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and Iraq’s national security and is unacceptable.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the Qataibu Hezbollah and the Qataibu Said Shuhada military faction are one of “several Iran-backed militia groups” that use the target facilities.
Kirby said: “The United States has taken necessary, appropriate, and deliberate actions to limit the risk of escalation – and it has also sent a clear and clear message of deterrence,” he added, choosing these targets because “these facilities have been Iranian use-engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle support militia [UAV] Attacking U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq”.
The statement did not specify whether anyone was killed or injured, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the United Kingdom, said at least seven fighters were killed and several others were injured.
The Syrian state-run SANA news agency said one child was killed and at least three others were injured.
Threat of retaliation
Two Iraqi militia officials told the Associated Press in Baghdad that four militiamen were killed in an air strike near the Syrian border.
The armed group in a statement allied with Iran mentioned four members of the Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada faction who said they were killed in an attack on the border between Syria and Iraq. They vowed to retaliate.
It said: “We will continue to be a shield to defend our beloved country, and we are fully prepared…to respond and retaliate.”
Since the beginning of this year, US interests in Iraq have been attacked more than 40 times, and 2,500 US troops have been deployed as part of the international coalition against the armed group ISIL.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also responded to the attack.
“The United States still continues to take the wrong path in the region. What we see today is not only sanctions, but the actions they took in the region followed the wrong policies of the previous administration,” Khatibzadeh said.
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdul Wahid reported from Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, calling the US attack “major.”
“PMF says they will use missiles to attack US military installations. Politicians affiliated with PMF have also been tweeting that the US only understands the language of force,” he said.
“We also know that these groups accuse the United States of not withdrawing troops from Iraq and failing to implement the decision of the Iraqi House of Representatives,” he added, referring to the parliamentary resolution approved in January last year, which called on all foreign troops to leave the country after the United States. Iran’s supreme general Qassim Soleimani was killed.
Biden and the White House declined to comment on the attack.
Former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Kolb said that as negotiations continue to resume nuclear agreements with world powers, the attack is “very certain” as a “notice” from Biden to Iran.
“The first time he used force was about a month after he took office,” Kolb told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think he sent that signal to Iran by accident. In fact, when they were about to conduct the seventh round of JCPOA negotiations, the fact that he was doing this was that he said: “Just because we are there, it doesn’t mean that We will ignore it [other issues]’. “
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