- The United States faces a backlash for its airstrikes against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria.
- Deadly airstrikes have killed at least 16 people in western Iraq.
- US President Joe Biden said nightly attacks would continue “at a time and place of our choosing.”
The United States launched nighttime airstrikes against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, drawing condemnation from both governments and vowing further retaliation for deadly attacks on American troops.
The United States blamed Sunday's drone attack on a US military base in Jordan on Iranian-backed forces, but both the US and Iran appear to want to avoid an all-out war, and are likely to fly into Iranian territory. The attack was not carried out.
But tensions in the region were already rising in the face of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, with both Damascus and Baghdad joining Tehran in accusing the US of undermining stability across the region.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said U.S. jets struck “more than 85 targets in seven facilities used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and extremist groups it supports,” including three in Iraq. , said the four facilities are in Syria.
“These targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties,” he added.
Read | US retaliatory strikes hit Iran-linked targets in Syria and Iraq
However, Iraqi government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said civilians were among at least 16 people killed in US airstrikes in western Iraq.
Awadi said the airstrikes “will plunge Iraq and the region's security into an abyss.”
Syria's Foreign Ministry said the airstrike served to “intensify the conflict in the Middle East in an extremely dangerous way.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Qanani said the night operation was “another strategic mistake by the US government and will have no other outcome than to intensify tensions and instability.”
Hamas, whose unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 sparked the current spiral of violence in the region, accused the US of “adding fuel to the fire”.
The Syrian army said airstrikes in eastern Syria killed “a large number of civilians and soldiers,” but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' war monitor reported no civilian deaths.
The U.K.-based Observatory said 23 pro-Iranian fighters were killed in the airstrike, and others are now evacuated fearing further U.S. attacks.
US President Joe Biden stressed that the overnight strike was just the beginning.
“Our response began today and will continue at a time and place of our choosing,” he said in a statement.
His National Security Council spokesman said the United States had “informed the Iraqi government of the facts before the airstrike,” but his comments drew angry denials from Baghdad.
An Iraqi government spokesperson called this a “baseless allegation made to mislead international opinion” and said the Foreign Ministry would summon the US charge d'affaires in Baghdad to lodge a formal protest.
Relations between the two governments have deteriorated in recent months after Washington carried out airstrikes against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq in response to a spate of attacks on U.S.-led forces since the Gaza war began last October. ing.
The two governments began talks late last month about the future of the U.S.-led military presence, following repeated demands from Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for a withdrawal date.
The United States has about 900 troops stationed in Syria and 2,500 troops in Iraq as part of an international coalition against the Islamic State group, a jihadist group that once controlled large swaths of both countries.
Also read | The US has struck more than 85 Iranian-linked targets in Iraq and Syria, but not Iran itself
Iraq's troops are deployed at Baghdad's request, while Syrian troops are deployed in areas outside the control of the Damascus government.
They operate out of bases in the Kurdish-held northeast or in a narrow strip of territory along the borders with Iraq and Jordan.
The Syrian military on Saturday demanded that the US government withdraw its troops.
“The occupation of parts of Syrian territory by U.S. forces cannot continue,” he said.
Analysts said the U.S. strike was unlikely to stem a wave of attacks on U.S. targets around the Middle East sparked by U.S. support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
Alison McManus, managing director of national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, said the strike represents a “significant escalation.”
But she was skeptical about its impact, adding: “We have not seen similar retaliatory attacks have a deterrent effect.”
Since mid-October, U.S. and coalition forces have been hit by drones, rockets, short-range ballistic missiles and other weapons more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan.
The soldier who died Sunday was the first U.S. service member to die from hostile fire in the escalating violence.
Mr. Biden is seeking re-election this year, and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized the one-night strike as too little, too late.
“Unfortunately, the administration waited a week to telegraph our response to the rest of the world, including Iran,” he said in a statement.