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US bombs Iraq and Syria in retaliation for drone attack on military base
The United States says Iran-backed militias operating in Syria and Iraq were behind a drone attack on a US military base in Jordan that left three of its soldiers dead.
A B-1B Lancer participating in the 2005 Malta International Airshow (photo credit: John Visanich, Facebook)
US warplanes have bombed 85 targets in Syria and Iraq overnight, in response to last Saturday’s drone attack on a US military base in Jordan, in which three US soldiers were killed.
Starting on Friday, B-1 Lancer strategic bombers carried out a number of airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq which the White House has blamed for the attack.
US President Joe Biden had been criticised for not retaliating immediately, but the delay may have been intended to allow Iranian forces to leave the target areas, to avoid igniting a wider conflict in the region.
"Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing," President Biden said in a statement on Friday
Iran has denied any involvement in the attack on the US base, which it attributes to resistance groups over which it had no control.
In its response to the strikes, which claimed an unspecified number of civilian lives and caused “huge” damage to property, the Syrian government said the American "occupation" of Syrian territory cannot continue.
General Yehia Rasool, a spokesperson for Iraq's prime minister, described the retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty, warning that they would bring “disastrous consequences” for the region. Civilians were among 16 people killed by the strikes targeting Iraq, he said.
