- Palestinian Mujahideen Movement ‘strongly condemns’ US strikes
A dangerous new phase in the Middle East conflict has begun with a major US military action targeting multiple locations in Syria and Iraq.
Seeking to both punish and deter Iran and its Iraq-based proxies after an Iranian-backed militia killed three US service personnel in Jordan, manned and unmanned aircraft hit multiple locations with 125 specialised munitions, according US military’s central command.
They come in response to a drone attack in Jordan that killed three US troops and injured some 40 others on Sunday.
The US blamed the attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.
Iran-backed militia groups throughout the region have used the conflict between Israel and Hamas to justify striking US facilities at least 166 times.
This was a calculated response, not a knee-jerk reaction, coming six days after militant group Kata’ib Hezbollah’s drone strike on the US Tower 22 facility in Jordan.
The Americans took the time to choose its targets – and it had the time to consider the message it was sending with each of these strikes.
The Pentagon previously identified those killed in the attack as Spc Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia; Spc Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia and Sgt William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia.
(L-R) Spc Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, Spc Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Sgt William Jerome Rivers
Officials said that of the more than 40 wounded, most had cuts, bruises, traumatic brain injuries and similar wounds.
It was later revealed that the enemy drone may have been confused with an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) returning to the base.
As the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, the US UAV was returning to the small desert installation known as Tower 22 in northeastern Jordan near the Syria border.
Meanwhile, an Iran-backed group in Iraq has accused Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia of letting the US use their territories to carry out attacks.
A spokesperson for the Sayyed al Shuhada Brigades, a brigade in Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces linked to Kata’ib Hezbollah, called on the Iraqi government to “interrogate” its foreign minister for allowing this to happen.
Abu Alaa al Walae also called for an end to the presence of US troops in Iraq.
He praised the “heroes of the Islamic Resistance” who “humiliated the American occupation” with their attacks.
The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement said it “strongly condemns” the US strikes, which they say is “an extension of the continuous American-Zionist-Western aggression on our nation and its resources”.
It said in a statement that the US “continues its aggression and arrogance towards the peoples of our nation to protect the Zionist criminals and prevent any ethical military intervention to stop the genocides committed by the Zionist entity against the people of Gaza or even to break the siege and the brutal policy of starvation implemented against them”.
The statement continued: “This new aggression reveals the lies of the American administration and its pursuit to intensify the war and the continuation of the Zionists in more massacres against the Gaza Strip, contrary to its claims otherwise.
“We affirm that the Zionist entity, the occupation, and the American bases in the Arab and Islamic region are the source of evil, terrorism, devastation, and evil.
“We call on the masses of the nation and its living forces to unite in confronting and resisting the enemies of the nation, injustice, arrogance, and American hegemony.”
The U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said: “US military forces 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 the facilities are in Iraq. Four of them are in Syria.
“Numerous aircraft, including B-1 bombers, dispatch from the United States, were involved in this operation, firing more than 125 precision guided munitions over the course of about 30 minutes.
“Target facilities included command and control centres, as well as headquarters buildings and intelligence centres, rocket, missile and drone storage facilities and logistics, ammunition supply chain facilities. These targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties and based on a clear, irrefutable evidence that they were connected to attacks on US personnel in the region.
“The Department of Defence is in the early stages of battle damage assessment, but we believe that the strikes were successful.”
He said the White House does not know how many militants were killed or wounded, but US aircraft are now out of harm’s way.
America did not inform Iraq of the strikes before they were carried out, said Mr Kirby.
He stressed the US is not looking for war with Iran, and said there has been no communication with the country since Sunday, when three US service members were killed in Jordan.