Written by Amanda Angulo
On Sunday, the US military carried out a direct order from President Joe Biden and used airstrikes against what they claim to be “facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups” near the Iraq-Syrian border.
John Kirby, the Pentagon Press Secretary stated that the militias were using the facilities in order to make vehicle attacks on US troops residing in Iraq. He also claimed that they had targeted three operational and weapons storage facilities and that the airstrikes were “defensive” in response to the attacks by militias.
“The United States took necessary, appropriate, and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation — but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message,” Kirby said.
Navy Commander Jessica McNulty, a Pentagon spokeswoman, had confirmed that each strike hit its three intended targets and that the US military was still in the process of assessing the results.
However, there does seem to be a discrepancy in how many militiamen were killed in the airstrikes. Iraq militia officials claimed that four militiamen were killed by the border in Syria. Whereas, a Britain-based group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least seven militiamen killed.
Then, Iran-backed Iraqui militia groups began to call for revenge, “We … will avenge the blood of our righteous martyrs against the perpetrators of this heinous crime and with God’s help we will make the enemy taste the bitterness of revenge,” they said.
Iraq’s military did disapprove and condemned these airstrikes as a “blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and national security,” and called to avoid any escalation.
The strikes were the second time that the Biden administration launched airstrikes by the Iraq-Syrian border region. The first was in February when the US retaliated against the murder of one civilian contractor and the wounding of a US service member and other coalition troops.
