from RT:
Washington has launched a new bombing campaign against Iranian-backed fighters in Iraq and Syria
The Pentagon has commenced retaliation strikes in response to a drone attack that killed three US troops at a secretive base in Jordan, targeting dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups.
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“Our response began today” and “will continue at times and places of our choosing,” US President Joe Biden announced on Friday night. The airstrikes started around midnight on Saturday local time and hit more than 85 Iranian-linked targets, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.
The bombings come nearly one week after a drone packed with explosives struck Tower 22, a US base in Jordan located near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, killing three soldiers and wounding more than 40 others. The attack, which the US blamed on the Iranian-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq, marked the first deaths of American troops in a wave of assaults triggered by the Israel-Hamas war.
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03 February 2024
14:52 GMT
Hamas condemned the US strikes on Iraq and Syria as a “dangerous escalation, an infringement on the sovereignty of the two Arab countries, and a threat to their security and the stability of the region” aimed at distracting from and covering up for Israel’s “horrific crimes” in Gaza.
The Biden administration “bears responsibility for the consequences of this brutal aggression,” the militant group said in a statement, arguing that the region “will not witness stability or peace except by stopping the Zionist aggression, crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip, and ending the Zionist-Nazi occupation.”
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13:53 GMT
US airstrikes in Syria and Iraq that resulted in the death of civilians and damaged infrastructure have “once again demonstrated to the whole world the aggressive nature of US policy in the Middle East and Washington’s complete disregard for international law,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. She added that the recent actions by Washington are aimed only at “further escalation.”
The spokeswoman described the strikes as the largest US air operation in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, adding that Washington, “believing in its impunity, continues to sow destruction and chaos.”
“The recent events confirm: the US is not and has never been looking to solve problems in the region. This state of affairs, when chronic contradictions in the Middle East only get worse, has always suited Washington,” Zakharova said, noting that Russia would attempt to raise the issue in the UN Security Council.
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11:32 GMT
Iraq’s Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee stated that the US attacks on the country’s soil “weaken the security interaction” between Baghdad and Washington, while calling for the conditions of the military cooperation to be reconsidered.
It also urged the government to accelerate the process of withdrawing US and coalition forces from Iraq, adding that their presence leads to instability.
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11:16 GMT
Iran strongly condemns US airstrikes on targets in Syria and Iraq, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has said, adding that Washington violated the two countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Washington’s strike is “another adventure and strategic mistake by the American government, which will have no result other than the escalation of tension and instability in the region,” he said, according to the statement.
He also stressed that Tehran believes that by conducting strikes in the region, the US is simply helping Israel, which is locked in a conflict with the Palestinian armed group Hamas in Gaza. The root of the tensions, Kanaani continued, is “the occupation of the Israeli regime and the continuation of this regime’s military operations in Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinians with the unlimited support of the United States.”
The spokesman did not address US claims that it had targeted groups linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) Quds Force. Earlier, however, Tehran said that all regional groups are acting independently.
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10:16 GMT
Iraq rejects US claims that it coordinated its attacks on facilities in the country with Baghdad, government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi said, suggesting that by falsifying the facts, Washington sought to “mislead international public opinion and disavow legal responsibility.”
