American raids targeted a Popular Mobilization Forces site in the Iraqi city of Al-Qaim in Anbar (Anatolia)
Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle, the United States of America has sought to prevent the escalation and expansion of the conflict so that it does not become regional. As part of its military and diplomatic support for the Israeli occupation state, Washington sent diplomatic and military messages to elements of the axis of resistance and Iran’s allies in the region urging them not to engage in the battle.
The United States sent the aircraft carriers Ford and Eisenhower to the eastern Mediterranean. The Ford, which was commissioned in 2017, is the newest aircraft carrier in the United States and the largest in the world, with more than 5,000 sailors on board.
As for the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Eisenhower, it was commissioned in 1977, carrying 5,000 sailors on board, and can carry up to 9 squadrons of aircraft, including fighters, helicopters, and reconnaissance aircraft.
As with the aircraft carrier Ford, the Eisenhower is accompanied by other ships such as the guided-missile cruiser Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyers Greeley and Mason.
An upward path...the Lebanon and Yemen fronts
However, since last October 8, Lebanese Hezbollah has begun an upward trend in its operations in southern Lebanon, targeting Israeli military sites and observation points along the border extending for about 140 km.
During the first three months of this confrontation, Hezbollah says it carried out nearly 700 strikes against Israeli targets, including 48 Israeli military sites and points and targeting 17 settlements on the border, which extends 140 kilometers from Ras Naqoura in the west to the occupied Syrian Golan in the east.
For its part, the Yemeni Ansar Allah group (Houthis) announced its involvement in the confrontation with the aim of pressuring an end to the aggression against the Gaza Strip. The attacks announced by the Yemeni armed forces affiliated with the Houthis included bombing operations on the south of the Israeli occupation state using ballistic and mobile missiles and drones.
The movement announced a ban on the passage of Israeli ships from the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea, and launched attacks on Israeli ships using naval drones and sea missiles, and detained at least one ship.
On December 9, it announced a ban on the passage of all ships of all nationalities heading to and from Israeli ports if they did not enter the Gaza Strip’s needs of medicine and food.
The Houthi attacks have led to what resembles a naval blockade in Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea, where major shipping companies have stopped their ships’ voyages in the Red Sea, such as the Danish companies A.P. Moller-Maersk, the Italian MSC, and CMA-CG. M" French.
While some companies announced additional fees on the goods they transport to and from the Middle East, such as the German company Hapag-Lloyd, which prompted the United States to create an international coalition in an attempt to deter the Houthis.
The Ansar Allah group directly targeted American warships in the Red Sea on at least eight occasions, although all attacks were intercepted.
Nearly half of the attacks were carried out using drones, while missiles were used in others.
On January 12, the United States and Britain launched attacks on targets in areas controlled by the Ansar Allah movement in Yemen, as the beginning of a series of subsequent operations.
Fire from Iraq and Syria
On the Iraqi and Syrian front, on October 21, 2023, the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” announced attacks with missiles and drones on American military sites in Syria and Iraq, in response to the Israeli aggression supported by the United States against the Gaza Strip.
Data issued by both sides show that more than 200 incidents of attacks and attempted attacks occurred against US forces and international coalition forces throughout the Middle East by the Axis of Resistance in the past four months, a 20-fold increase compared to the previous four-month period. In the 12 months preceding the events of last October 7, only about 30 similar events were reported in the region.
The above scene came in conflict with the American desire to prevent escalation in the region, which ultimately prompted the Biden administration to announce a series of attacks on both the Yemeni Ansar Allah group and the Islamic resistance in Iraq and Syria.
Following the killing of 3 American soldiers and the wounding of nearly 40 others in an attack on a base in Jordan, the United States announced that it would direct strikes against pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria and sites of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which the Biden administration accuses of supporting and managing these groups.
On February 2, the United States carried out 85 strikes in Iraq and Syria, including 7 against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its affiliated militias.
The strikes avoided Iranian territory, but focused on the "Iranian corridor" in Deir ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria. It included the areas surrounding the governorate's capital, and the desert area of Al-Mayadeen.
The United States indicated that its counterstrikes at midnight on February 3 were the beginning of its response to many attacks.
The United States has significantly increased its military activity in the Middle East over the past four months, including retaliatory air strikes as part of more than 60 incidents against members of the Axis of Resistance since October 7.
The US military command in the Middle East (Centcom) said that the strikes against Kataib Hezbollah targeted “headquarters and storage and training sites for missiles, missile projectiles, and explosive drones.”
In Iraq, American strikes targeted both Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, as the United States accuses them of being behind most of the recent attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria.
In Syria, the strikes included armed groups loyal to Iran, Syrian army forces, Revolutionary Guard sites, and the Fatemiyoun Brigade.
Official statistics show that the total number of deaths as a result of these air strikes reached 18 people.
America's targets for attacks
The United States seeks through its strikes to deter these groups in light of the fragile security situation sweeping the region since the seventh of last October.
The Biden administration also places these attacks in the context of the pressures on its forces and the international coalition forces to leave Iraq, based on the decisions of the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
The Biden administration takes into account the proximity of the US elections and its desire to restore calm to the region before those elections.
The United States also fears that the “Axis of Resistance” groups will develop their performance and engage more in direct targeting of the Israeli occupation state in light of the continued aggression against Gaza and the possibility of escalation in southern Lebanon.
A cautious range avoids Iran
President Joe Biden accused Iranian-backed militias of being behind the attacks, and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that the drone that carried out the raid was Iranian-made.
As part of its retaliatory attacks in Iraq and Syria, the United States was keen to avoid directing strikes on Iranian territory, and not to directly accuse Tehran of bearing responsibility for the attacks on the Al-Tanf base and Tower 22 in Jordan.
This comes in line with the declared US policy of avoiding major regional escalation. In a statement, Austin said, "We do not seek to escalate the conflict in the region, but we are fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people and facilities."
On the other hand, Iran declared a state of high alert and deployed its defense systems along the border with Iraq in anticipation of any potential attacks by the United States.
It also called on the armed groups associated with it to disappear and evacuate their positions, and directed that Iranian military commanders and advisors leave their positions in Iraq and Syria, to avoid being targeted by American or Israeli raids.
The delay in the American response for nearly a week also indicates an American desire to avoid large human losses among the armed groups and their sites, as the delay in the response gave those groups sufficient time to evacuate the sites and take the necessary precautions to avoid large losses.
reactions
For its part, the Iranian Foreign Ministry last Saturday "strongly" condemned the US military attacks on areas in Iraq and Syria, and considered them a "strategic mistake" that contributes to exacerbating tension and instability in the region.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement, “We strongly condemn the American military attacks on areas in Iraq and Syria,” according to the Iranian Mehr Agency.
Kanaani considered that "the attacks are a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria, and a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter."
He continued, "In addition to the United States' full support for four months of brutal and continuous Israeli oppression against the residents of Gaza and the West Bank, and the military attacks on Yemen and the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this country, last night's attack on Syria and Iraq is a new strategic adventure and mistake by the American government, which contributes to... "The tension and instability in the region have worsened."
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last Saturday, "Syria condemns this blatant American violation, and categorically rejects all the pretexts and lies promoted by the American administration to justify this attack."
The spokesman for the Iraqi Armed Forces, Yahya Rasool, responded in a statement last Saturday, saying, “The strikes are considered a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, and constitute a threat that may drag Iraq and the region into undesirable consequences, and their consequences will be dire for security and stability in Iraq and the region.”
Hamas condemns
For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) last Saturday condemned the American attacks on Iraq and Syria, considering them a "dangerous escalation and an attack on the sovereignty of two Arab countries."
The movement said in a statement, "We condemn in the strongest terms the American aggression against both Iraq and Syria, and consider it a dangerous escalation, an infringement on the sovereignty of the two Arab countries, and a threat to their security and the stability of the region."
She added that the attack came "in service of the Israeli occupation's expansionist agenda, and to cover up its horrific crimes against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."
At the level of armed groups, the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades announced that it would “temporarily” suspend its military and security operations against American forces with the aim of preventing embarrassment to the Iraqi government after the attack that resulted in the killing of Americans on the Jordanian border.
The group's announcement came shortly before the American attacks, in an Iranian indication of its desire to reduce the escalation and avoid a broad American response.
After the American attacks
The American strikes that were carried out against the sites of armed groups in Syria and Iraq were disciplined and calculated so as not to lead to a greater escalation, which may push those groups to continue targeting American sites and perhaps develop their attacks to include Israeli targets.
After the American attacks, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Syria announced the targeting of Ain al-Asad Air Base in Anbar Governorate, and Al-Harir Air Base in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
A missile bombardment also targeted the American base in the Conico gas field, east of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, northeastern Syria.
The Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq pledged to respond to the American attacks that targeted its positions and civilian sites in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Al-Nujaba Movement, one of the most active Iraqi factions against American targets, announced that it “will not suspend attacks on the Americans, and will respond to any attack by them.”
Source: Al Jazeera