Enlarge image

US long-range bomber

Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP

The UN Security Council is meeting on Monday for an emergency meeting at Russia's request - because of the US air strikes in Syria and Iraq. This is reported by the news agencies dpa and AFP, citing diplomatic circles.

The meeting in New York will start at 4 p.m. local time (10 p.m. CET) and will address US retaliatory attacks against Iranian-backed groups, it said. Washington accuses these groups of a deadly attack on US soldiers stationed in Jordan.

The US bombed targets in Iraq and Syria on Saturday night in response to a drone attack in Jordan at the end of January that left three dead. The White House blamed Iran-backed militias for the attack.

Russia had previously announced that it had called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council - because of "the threat to peace and security posed by the US attacks on Syria and Iraq," as Russian deputy UN ambassador Dmitri Polyanski put it.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously announced in Moscow: "Washington, confident of its impunity, is continuing its sowing of chaos and destruction in the Middle East." The attacks were condemned "firmly."

ssu/AFP/dpa