Retaliatory bombings by the United States carried out in the early hours of Saturday (3) against pro-Iranian militia positions in Syria and Iraq killed around 40 people in both countries, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Iraqi government. Syria and Iraq condemned these attacks and described them as a violation of national sovereignty.
At least 23 people have been killed in the US bombing of eastern Syria, including nine “Syrian fighters”, according to the Observatory, a UK-based NGO with an extensive network of collaborators. So far, Syria's official death toll has not been released, although the country's Defense Ministry said the bombings resulted in the “deaths of several civilians and soldiers” and “significant damage to public and private property.”
The Iraqi government reported that at least 16 people, including civilians, died in the west of the country as a result of these first US airstrikes in retaliation for the deaths of three of its soldiers in Jordan, attributed to pro-Iranian militias in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al Sudani declared three days of national mourning for the deaths. Days of mourning will be implemented “in all state departments and institutions” in memory of “the souls of the martyrs of the armed forces and civilians who died as a result of US bombings”, the prime minister's office said in a statement.
Washington announced on Saturday bombings against more than 85 targets and facilities linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Syria and Iraq, “the beginning” of its response to the attack on its troops in Jordan. In an interview with NBC News, a senior Biden administration official said that “Iraq is a sovereign nation and we respect their right to express their concerns, but they should not be harboring these Iranian groups on Iraqi soil.”
Iraqi government spokesman Bassam al Awadi said in a statement that “the American side deliberately deceived and falsified the facts by announcing prior coordination to commit this aggression, which is a false allegation aimed at misleading opinion. international public.”
President Joe Biden warned that his country's response to the attack on US troops in Jordan will continue as Washington deems necessary. “Our response began today. It will continue whenever and wherever we want,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House, in which he assured that the United States “does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.”
For its part, the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, vehemently condemned this Saturday the retaliatory bombings by the United States against pro-Iranian groups in Syria and Iraq and denounced that they contribute to “destabilizing the region”, the scene of a escalation of tensions arising from the war in the Gaza Strip.
“This new aggression contributes to destabilizing the region and creating false justifications and pretexts for the continuation of the American occupation of several regions of Iraq and Syria against the will of their people, who yearn for freedom and independence,” the group said in a statement. Both Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels, Iraq's pro-Iranian militias, and the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad are part of the Iranian-led informal Axis of Resistance alliance with deep anti-Israel and anti-U.S. sentiment. .
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