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President Biden: “The United States is not seeking conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world”
Photo: Alex Brandon / AP
The US military has responded to the deadly attack by pro-Iranian militias in Jordan with counterstrikes on targets in Iraq and Syria. The airstrikes targeted more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and the militias they support, the US military said on Friday. Among other things, command centers, secret service locations and weapons depots were attacked.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden attended the arrival of the remains of the killed US soldiers at an air force base in the state of Delaware - a short time later the counterattack began. He ordered military strikes against facilities in Iraq and Syria linked to the groups that attacked US forces, the US president said in a written statement. The reaction will continue.
»Our response began today. “We will move forward at the time and place of our choosing,” Biden continued. »The United States is not seeking conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But everyone who wants to harm us should know: If you harm an American, we will respond."
The Iraqi military has now confirmed the US attacks on Iraqi border areas in its own statement. "These airstrikes represent a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government and pose a threat that could have dire consequences for Iraq and the region," Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasool said in a statement.
Syrian state media also reported US attacks on areas in Syria, including near the border with Iraq.
According to the US Central Command for the Middle East, three US soldiers were killed and dozens more injured in the shelling of a military base in northeastern Jordan near the border with Syria on Sunday. The US President blamed a pro-Iranian group for the attack and announced a response. On Wednesday, the US government officially attributed the attack to a group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which had previously claimed responsibility for the attack.
It is a kind of umbrella group for pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, which have been operating together under this general name since the terrorist attacks by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th in Israel. This includes the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah. It is one of the strongest militias in Iraq and is calling for the withdrawal of US troops from the country. Northeast Jordan, where the deadly attack on US soldiers occurred, borders both Syria and Iraq.
For the US President, the action against the militias is a tightrope act. On the one hand, he wants to avoid his country being drawn into a regional war in the Middle East. On the other hand, he wants to show strength and bring an end to the attacks. At the same time, he is under pressure in the USA - some Republicans are calling for more aggressive countermeasures to the attacks against the US military.
eru/dpa/Reuters