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Washington: The US military launched retaliatory air strikes against Iranian forces and Tehran-backed militia groups in Iraq and Syria on Friday, killing at least 18 fighters, following a deadly drone attack on an American base in Jordan.<\/p>\n
The United States blamed the Sunday drone attack on Iran-backed forces but did not strike the country\u2019s territory in response, with Washington seeking to deter future attacks while stopping short of all-out war with Tehran \u2014 something both sides have sought to avoid.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing,\u201d US President Joe Biden said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The strikes targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force as well as \u201caffiliated militia groups,\u201d with American forces hitting \u201cmore than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States,\u201d the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions,\u201d CENTCOM said, adding that the targets included command and control and intelligence centers as well as rocket, missile and drone storage facilities belonging to militia groups and Iranian forces \u201cwho facilitated attacks against US and coalition forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
The strikes killed at least 18 pro-Iran fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.<\/p>\n
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told journalists that the strikes lasted about 30 minutes, though they involved a lengthy trip for the B-1 bombers that took part after flying from the United States.<\/p>\n
He said the Defense Department is still assessing damage from the strikes \u2014 which hit dozens of targets at seven separate facilities \u2014 but that the United States believes the raids were successful, and made clear that more would follow.<\/p>\n
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that at least 26 major sites housing pro-Iranian groups were destroyed in Syria, including weapons depots.<\/p>\n
A weapons warehouse and a command center belonging to pro-Iranian groups were also targeted in western Iraq, along the Syrian border, two Iraq security sources told AFP, resulting in at least \u201csome injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n
The strikes represent a \u201csignificant escalation,\u201d according to Allison McManus, managing director for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress.<\/p>\n
But she was skeptical about the impact, adding: \u201cWe have not seen that similar tit-for-tat strikes have had a deterrent effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iraq, whose prime minister called for the departure of international troops after a previous US strike in Baghdad, condemned the latest military action as a violation of its sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Kirby said Washington \u201cdid inform the Iraqi government prior to the strikes,\u201d but did not elaborate on Baghdad\u2019s private response to that information.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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[ad_1] \u00a0 Washington: The US military launched retaliatory air strikes against Iranian forces and Tehran-backed militia groups in Iraq and Syria on Friday, killing at least 18 fighters, following a deadly drone attack on an American base in Jordan. The United States blamed the Sunday drone attack on Iran-backed forces but did not strike the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20058,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20056\/revisions\/20058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}