The airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in response to the deadly drone attack came Friday night, hours after Biden attended a solemn military ritual at a Delaware air base to mark the return of three fallen soldiers – The Guardian reported.
The US president said the airstrikes were in retaliation for a drone attack that resulted in the deaths of three American servicemen in Jordan:
Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.
The US military’s Central Command said more than 125 bombs were dropped in the attack, which took place around midnight local time, in what was described by Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, as “the start of our response.” Targets included command and control operations, intelligence centres, missile and rocket sites, logistics facilities and ammunition supply chains, but it was unclear how precise the strikes were and what casualties they caused.
“US military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from the United States,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
At least 26 major facilities of pro-Iranian groups in Syria, including weapons depots, have been destroyed, the Observatory said. Warplanes destroyed 17 positions in eastern Deir ez-Zor province, three strikes hit al-Mayadeen and one hit Albu Kamal, near the Iraqi border, and at least 18 Iranian-backed fighters were killed in eastern Syria in strikes believed to have been carried out by the US.
John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, said the strikes lasted about 30 minutes:
These responses began tonight. They’re not going to end tonight. So there will be additional responses. There will be additional action that we will take, all designed to put an end to these attacks and to take away capability by the IRGC.
The current situation was triggered by the US saying on Thursday that it blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iran-affiliated militias, for last weekend’s deadly drone attack on the remote Tower 22 logistics base in Jordan, near the border with Syria and Iraq. The residential attack killed three US Army reservists and injured more than 80. Previously, US bases in Iraq and Syria have come under more than 165 attacks by militias in the two countries linked to Iran since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October.
Growing tensions in the Middle East caused by the Israel-Hamas war threaten to drag US forces back into the regional conflict.
