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US-IRAN-IRAQ-SYRIA-DEFENSE-UNREST
US strikes ‘Iranian-backed militant’ site in Syria: Pentagon
WASHINGTON, Feb 26, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The US military struck facilities in
eastern Syria used by Iran-backed armed groups Thursday, saying President Joe
Biden’s new administration was sending Tehran a message after recent rocket
attacks on US troop locations in Iraq.
In its first military action against Iran-linked groups since Biden became
president five weeks ago, the US Defense Department said it had carried out
airstrikes at a Syria-Iraq border control point used by those groups,
destroying “multiple facilities.”
“At President Biden’s direction, US military forces earlier this evening
conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed
militant groups in eastern Syria,” said spokesman John Kirby in a statement.
“These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against
American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those
personnel,” he said.
– 17 reported killed –
Kirby did not say whether there were any casualties in Thursday’s attack.
But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 17 people were killed
after the strike hit three trucks loaded with munitions coming from Iraq near
the Syrian city of Bukamal.
The group said all the dead were from Iraq’s state-sponsored Hashed al-
Shaabi force, the umbrella group over many small militias that have ties to
Iran.
Kirby said the location was used by Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-
Shuhada, two armed Iraqi Shiite groups under Hashed al-Shaabi.
– Reprisal for rocket attacks –
The US action followed three rocket attacks on facilities in Iraq used by
United States and coalition forces fighting the Islamic State group.
One of those strikes, on a military complex in the Kurdish region’s capital
Arbil on February 15, killed a civilian and a foreign contractor working with
coalition forces, and injured several US contractors and a soldier.
The attacks in Iraq laid down a challenge to the new Biden administration
just as it opened a door to resumed negotiations with Tehran over its alleged
nuclear weapons program.
Last week, the administration offered talks with Iran led by European
allies as it sought to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, left on the brink of
collapse after the previous government of President Donald Trump withdrew
from it.
But the administration has also made clear it would not brook “malign
activities” in the region by Iran.
Iran is believed to be searching for an opportunity to avenge the US
assassination of top general Qasem Soleimani one year ago.
Soleimani, a senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, was
Tehran’s key liaison to allied groups and figures in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and
elsewhere in the region.
He was killed in a US drone strike just as he arrived in Baghdad for
meetings with top Iraqi officials.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday the US would “hold Iran
responsible for the actions of its proxies that attack Americans” but would
not “lash out” and risk destabilizing Iraq.
Kirby called Thursday’s strikes “proportionate” and said it “was conducted
together with diplomatic measures,” including consultation with US partners
in the anti-IS coalition.
“The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to
protect American and Coalition personnel,” he said.
“At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-
escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” he added.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0855 hrs