The United States launched overnight air strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria, drawing condemnation from both governments Saturday, and promised more to come in retaliation for a deadly attack on US troops.
The United States blamed Sunday’s drone attack on a US base in Jordan on forces backed by Iran, but did not strike inside Iranian territory, with both Washington and Tehran seemingly keen to avoid all-out war.
But with tensions in the region already running high in the face of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, both Damascus and Baghdad joined Tehran in accusing Washington of undermining the stability of the whole region.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said US warplanes struck “more than 85 targets at seven facilities utilised by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militant groups that they sponsor”, three of them in Iraq and four in Syria.
“These targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties,” he added.
But Iraqi government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said civilians were among at least 16 people killed in the US strikes in western Iraq.
“The security of Iraq and the region will find itself on the brink of an abyss” because of the strikes, Awadi said.
The Syrian foreign ministry said the strikes served to “inflame the conflict in the Middle East in an extremely dangerous way”.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the overnight operation was “another strategic mistake by the US government, which will have no result other than intensifying tension and instability.”
The Syrian army said “a number of civilians and soldiers” were killed in the strikes in eastern Syria, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported no civilian deaths.
The Britain-based Observatory said the strikes killed 23 pro-Iran fighters and others were now evacuating their positions for fear of more US strikes.
With AFP
