U.S. forces in Syria were assaulted by rockets a day after the U.S. military performed what a Pentagon main called “defensive” airstrikes in Iraq and Syria versus Iran-backed militia groups.
Col. Wayne Marotto, the military spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, a global union battling the Islamic State extremist group, stated that at around 7: 44 p.m. regional time Monday (12: 44 p.m. ET) U.S. forces in Syria came under rocket fire. There were no injuries and the damage was being examined, he stated on Twitter.
Marotto later on tweeted that while under attack, U.S. forces in Syria reacted in self-defense with weapons fire at rocket-launching positions.
But the escalation came a day after the Pentagon stated the U.S. airstrikes had actually targeted functional and weapons storage centers utilized by Iran-backed militia groups at 2 places in Syria and one in Iraq on Sunday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated the airstrikes intended to interfere with and discourage attacks by Iran-backed groups on U.S. interests in Iraq.
“We took necessary appropriate deliberate action that is designed to limit the risk of escalation, but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message,” he informed press reporters in Rome on Monday.
Jessica McNulty, a Pentagon spokesperson, stated the centers targeted were utilized by a network of Iran-backed militia groups accountable for a series of current attacks versus centers real estate U.S. workers in Iraq.
Iran-backed militias have actually performed a minimum of 5 “one-way” drone attacks versus centers utilized by U.S. and union workers in Iraq given that April, along with continuous rocket attacks versus U.S. and union forces, she included.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby stated the airstrikes had actually been “defensive” as they were introduced in action to the attacks by the militias. Several Iran-backed militia groups, consisting of Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, utilized the centers, Kirby included.
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The 14th brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a state-sanctioned umbrella group for a variety of Iran-backed militias in Iraq, stated 4 of its militiamen were eliminated in Sunday’s attack.
Symbolic funeral services were kept in Baghdad on Tuesday. Pictures launched by companies revealed members of the Popular Mobilization Forces bring mock caskets for those eliminated in Sunday’s airstrike along the streets of the Iraqi capital.
The mobilization forces stated in a declaration that those eliminated were working to avoid the seepage of ISIS from Syria into Iraq and were not associated with any activity versus foreign forces in Iraq. The group likewise rejected the existence of weapons storage facilities.
It stated it scheduled the right to react and to hold the criminals of the attack liable.
A representative for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi militaries likewise condemned Sunday’s airstrike explaining it as “a blatant and unacceptable” offense of Iraqi sovereignty.
“Iraq renews its refusal to be an arena for settling accounts,” the representative stated.
In February, President Joe Biden purchased airstrikes on structures in Syria that the Pentagon stated were utilized by Iranian-backed militias, in retaliation for rocket attacks on U.S. targets in surrounding Iraq.
That operation was the very first recognized usage of military force by the Biden administration.
The airstrikes Sunday come at a delicate time for relations in between Iran and the U.S., as delegations from both nations are trying to restore the scruffy 2015 nuclear offer.
The 2015 contract in between Iran and 6 world powers — the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, France, Britain — restricted Tehran’s nuclear capability in exchange for sanctions relief.
Then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the handle 2018 and reimposed debilitating sanctions on the nation.
Asked Monday if he held Tehran accountable for the militia attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq, Blinken reacted: “Well, a number of the groups involved in recent attacks are militia that are backed by Iran.”
Asked what actions the U.S. may take ought to militia attacks continue, Blinken stated Sunday’s airstrikes and previous actions had actually shown that Biden is “fully prepared” to act to safeguard U.S. interests, individuals and workers.
Blinken revealed Monday that the U.S. is supplying more than $436 million in extra humanitarian help to Syrians and the neighborhoods that host them.
The U.S. has actually had a rocky history with Iran-backed militias given that their expansion in Iraq in 2008.
Before the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, Iran-backed militias targeted U.S. convoys with improvised explosive gadgets. In 2014, the U.S. and militias discovered themselves fighting a typical enemy in ISIS.
Then throughout the Trump administration, violence flared once again in between the 2 foes, culminating in the death of the top Iranian basic, Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leader of the Iran-backed militias in Iraq, in a U.S. airstrike in January 2020.
Iran struck back days later on by shooting more than a lots ballistic rockets at 2 Iraqi air bases real estate U.S. forces.
