US President Joe Biden said, in response to the airstrikes carried out by the US military in eastern Syria, Thursday, that Iran will not get away with it.
Biden's statement came while traveling to Texas on Friday to inspect the damage caused by a strong winter storm, when journalists asked him about his message to Iran behind those air strikes, and he replied, "You cannot get away with it. Beware."
The Pentagon announced that, on Thursday evening, US fighters launched raids on facilities located in eastern Syria and belonging to Iranian-backed Iraqi armed factions, in response to missile attacks on US targets in Iraq.
The ministry explained that the aim of the raids was "to undermine the ability of the militias to launch new attacks," and to send a message that the United States would protect its forces.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news conference that the ministry had a perception about casualties in the raid, and that it was still assessing the situation.
He emphasized that the targets of the raids were carefully chosen and were "defensive", adding that this military action was based on intelligence information "the Kurds and Iraqis contributed to developing", and it related to the infrastructure used by these factions.
Iraq denies sharing information
However, the Iraqi army denied sharing information with the United States regarding those raids, according to the Iraqi News Agency.
The Iraqi army said that its cooperation with the international coalition, led by the United States, is limited to fighting ISIS.
On the other hand, Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq admitted to targeting its sites by American aircraft, which it said had caused the death of one of its members at the Iraqi-Syrian border.
The brigades added in a statement that the dead man belonged to the 46th Brigade, which operates within the Popular Mobilization Forces in the Al-Jazeera and Badia operations sector, "specifically in the Iraqi Al-Qaim region."
Rocket attacks targeted Erbil, northern Iraq, and its airport on February 15, killing and wounding 9, including 4 American contractors.
The international coalition to fight ISIS said at the time that 14 missiles hit the city, 3 of them hit the coalition base, noting that the dead was a non-American contractor.