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WASHINGTON — U.S. warplanes launched 85 barrage strikes on Friday against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria in connection with Sunday’s attack on U.S. forces in Jordan that killed three soldiers. I did it.
According to US Central Command, 125 precision munitions were used in the airstrike. Targets attacked included command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, rockets, missiles, drones, and logistics systems used by militias to attack U.S. and Western interests.
“The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere in the world,” President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the attack. “But to all those who seek to harm us, please know this: If you harm Americans, we will respond.”
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The airstrike lasted about 30 minutes and targeted seven facilities, three in Iraq and four in Syria, White House National Security Secretary John Kirby said.
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Kirby said the targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties and were based on “clear and irrefutable evidence that they are connected to attacks on U.S. military personnel” in the area. Ta.
Kirby said Pentagon officials are in the early stages of assessing the damage, but “we believe the attack was successful.”
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escalating conflict
A drone attack on a U.S. military base along the Jordan-Syria border on Sunday killed three U.S. Army reservists and injured dozens more. President Joe Biden and other officials blamed the attack on militias sent by Iran.
Friday’s U.S. attack intensified a Middle East conflict that has been raging since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 26,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
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Kirby said U.S. officials do not know how many, if any, militants may have been killed or injured in the strikes. But the U.S. carried out the attack believing there was a “high probability of casualties related to people inside the facility,” said Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Several factors, including weather, influenced the timing of the airstrike, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Another problem was ensuring the timing of attacks targeting insurgents.
Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have hinted at the possibility of further attacks. “Our response begins today,” Biden said. “It will continue at a time and place of our choosing.”
“This is the beginning of our response. The president has directed additional actions to hold the Revolutionary Guards and affiliated militias accountable for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces,” Austin said.
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Iranian elite forces
According to US Central Command, the attack targeted Iran’s Quds Force. The Quds Force is an elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that specializes in irregular warfare. The fighters included some flown from the United States, indicating the Pentagon used B-2 long-range stealth bombers.
Since October, extremist groups equipped and trained by Iran have launched more than 200 attacks across the Middle East. They range from Yemen’s Houthis firing missiles into commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea, to militant groups in Iraq and Syria firing rockets, missiles and drones at U.S. military bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. .
Degrading Iranian-backed militias, but not deterring
The Pentagon has occasionally responded with airstrikes targeting Houthi missile and radar sites and sites used by Iraqi insurgents to launch rockets and missiles. But White House and Pentagon officials have stressed that they do not want to get involved in a broader war in the Middle East.
“Biden’s strategy is not centered around: Deter These militias etc. to degrade Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible National Strategy, said in a statement that “the ability to attack the United States has been eliminated,” adding, “The White House is confident that the attack will deter militias from continuing their attacks.” “It’s not just a tacit admission that we can’t stop militias from continuing their attacks.” The bombing of Yemen has not stopped the Houthi attacks. ”
“There is no escaping this reality. Unless tensions are reduced in Gaza, it is unlikely that anything that happens in the region will reduce tensions,” said Parsi, who has been critical of US support for Israel’s war. .
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Most attacks by insurgents through Sunday resulted in only minor injuries and little damage to the base’s infrastructure. The situation changed when the defenders of Jordan’s Tower 22 base near the border with Syria mistook an enemy drone for a friendly aircraft and sent it over the wall, U.S. officials said.
Syrian troops carry out unpopular mission
The Pentagon has deployed about 3,000 troops to Iraq, Syria and Jordan to advise local forces in the fight against ISIS remnants.
Biden said the Iranian government was ultimately responsible for the deaths of three American soldiers in their barracks. “I think they are responsible in the sense that they are supplying weapons to the people who committed the incident,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
A poll conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Defense Priorities in collaboration with online research firm YouGov found that many Americans are unaware of the U.S. presence in Syria. And even if Americans were aware of this military presence, they do not strongly support the Biden administration’s stated reason for keeping the troops there: to prevent a resurgence of ISIS.
The poll, conducted before the attack in Jordan, also found that general support for the U.S. military presence in Syria has declined as the cost of American lives increases.
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Contributor: Kim Hjelmgaard
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