WASHINGTON DC: Islamic Resistance in Iraq militants on Saturday targeted the al-Harir air base hosting US forces in northern Iraq, the group said hours after the US carried out retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran-linked targets.
President Joe Biden and other top US leaders had been warning for days that America would strike back at the militias, and they made it clear it wouldn’t be just one hit but a “tiered response” over time. The officials confirming the initial strikes spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations not yet announced.
The strikes by manned and unmanned aircraft hit more than 85 targets, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites and other facilities.
After Washington carried out the strikes, Damascus said Saturday that US occupation of Syrian territory “cannot continue”.
The overnight strikes killed “a number of civilians and soldiers, wounded others and caused significant damage to public and private property,” the Syrian military said in a statement, adding: “The occupation of parts of Syrian territory by US forces cannot continue.”
In Iraq 16 killed including civilians
Sixteen people were killed, among them civilians, and 25 injured in overnight US airstrikes on pro-Iran targets in Iraq, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s office said on Saturday.
In a statement, it condemned the strikes as a “new aggression against Iraq’s sovereignty” and denied that they were coordinated by the Baghdad government beforehand with Washington, calling such assertions “lies.”
Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned overnight US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as “violations of the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the two countries.
Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani, in a statement, said the attacks represented “another adventurous and strategic mistake by the United States that will result only in increased tension in instability in the region.”
US Central Command said the strikes used more than 125 precision munitions, and they were delivered by numerous aircraft, inlcuding long-range bombers flown from the United States. One official said B-1 bombers were used.
The assault came came just hours after Biden and top defense leaders joined grieving families to watch as the remains of the three Army Reserve soldiers were returned to the US at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
It was unclear what the next steps will be, or whether the days of US warnings have sent militia members scattering into hiding, making it more difficult to detect and strike them. But it was evident that the recent statement released by Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the main Iran-backed militias, saying it was suspending attacks on American troops had no impact on the administration’s plans.
Harakat Al-Nujaba vowed to continue attacks
The US strikes appeared to stop short of directly targeting Iran or senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guard Quds force within its borders. Iran has denied it was behind the Jordan attack.
In a statement this week, Kataib Hezbollah announced “the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government.” But Harakat Al-Nujaba, one of the other major Iran-backed groups, vowed Friday to continue military operations against US troops.
The US has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the deadly attack in Jordan, but has not yet narrowed it down to a specific group. Kataeb Hezbollah is, however, a top suspect.
Some of the militias have been a threat to US bases for years, but the groups intensified their assaults in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The war has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza and spilled across four other countries now. Iran-backed militia groups throughout the region have used the conflict to justify striking Israeli or US interests, including threatening civilian commercial ships and US warships with drones or missiles in almost daily exchanges.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that “this is a dangerous moment in the Middle East.” He added, “We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people. And we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose.”
As of Tuesday, Iran-backed militia groups had launched 166 attacks on US military installations since Oct. 18, including 67 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and now one in Jordan, according to a US military official. The last attack was Jan. 29 at at Al-Asad air base in Iraq, and there were no injuries or damage.
