In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, U.S. strikes on Iran’s forces and allies in Syria and Iraq have drawn sharp condemnation from Iran, Iraq, and Syria, marking a pivotal moment in the region’s complex geopolitical landscape.
The U.S. strikes, conducted on a Friday, targeted seven locations across Syria and Iraq. The primary targets were the Quds Force unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated militia groups. This action was a response to a drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops, an attack the U.S. attributed to these Iranian groups.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said, “Last night’s strike was another adventure and strategic mistake by the U.S. administration whose result will not be other than escalation and instability in the region.”
Iran has vehemently denied any involvement in the drone attack. On Saturday, following the U.S. strikes, Iran criticized the U.S., warning that these actions pose a threat to regional and international security.
The governments of Iraq and Syria echoed Iran’s sentiments, stating that the U.S. airstrikes violated their sovereignty and endangered the safety of their citizens. The Iraqi government warned that this aggressive airstrike could push the security situation in Iraq and the region to the brink of the abyss.
This statement adds to the growing rift between the U.S. and Baghdad. Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani had previously stated that the U.S.-led military coalition, which has been helping his country fight Islamic State militants, is no longer needed.
The U.S. strikes hit two towns, Akashat and al-Qaim, in western Iraq near the border with Syria. An Iraqi government spokesman reported that 16 people were killed, including civilians, and 25 were wounded. The Syrian military also reported civilian and military casualties but did not disclose exact figures.
The U.S. strikes were designed to halt militia assaults against U.S. forces in the Middle East, which have increased in recent months over Washington’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza against Hamas. In the worst of these attacks, a drone from an Iranian-backed group struck a housing barracks in Jordan, killing three Army reservists.
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U.S. Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Staff, said the attacks appeared to be successful, triggering large secondary explosions as the bombs hit militant weaponry.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has stated that the U.S. will repeat its strikes as long as militias continue to threaten U.S. personnel in the region. However, the U.S. attack on Friday appeared to be calibrated to ensure the war in Gaza doesn’t expand around the Middle East and drag Washington into a regional conflict with Iran.
As the Biden administration weighed a response, Kataib Hezbollah, the Iraqi militia suspected of involvement in the drone strike, also said it was suspending attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, indicating it was attempting to de-escalate tensions.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi told a crowd in a speech Friday that it wouldn’t initiate a war, “but if a country or a cruel force wants to bully the Islamic Republic of Iran, it will respond firmly.”
Should attacks by militias continue, the U.S. could more aggressively strike Quds Force personnel in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen without warning or hit Iranian ships at sea. However, the U.S. is likely to stop short of hitting Iran directly, as that could draw Tehran more aggressively into a war that neither side has said it wants, though Republican lawmakers have said a strike on Iranian soil should remain an option.
While Friday’s strikes diminished the capabilities of pro-Iranian militias, experts expect militia attacks to continue. The Iranians and their militias were reportedly moving their forces out of harm’s way before the strikes.
The Biden administration’s efforts to deter Iran-backed groups have been ongoing since Oct. 7, when Israel began a war against Hamas in response to a cross-border attack from Gaza. After militant attacks on U.S. troops, the Biden administration initially confined its response to targets in Syria before then mounting a handful of limited retaliatory strikes in Iraq.
When the militia attacks continued and a U.S. service member was seriously wounded, Washington stepped up its response by carrying out a drone attack against a militia leader in Baghdad early last month.
The attacks by militias in Iraq and Syria now exceed 165 strikes with rockets, missiles, drones, or mortars. Joel Rayburn, a former U.S. envoy to Syria, said he would be surprised if the U.S. strikes were taken seriously by the IRGC. “They appear to be just a rerun of the strikes the U.S. has been doing periodically for the last several months with little effect,” he said.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has also struck targets belonging to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in response to the group’s threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region. Since the Gaza war began, the Houthis have launched more than 30 attacks on commercial ships and military vessels, hampering passage through the Red Sea, a key shipping transit point.
In Iraq, the Biden administration has sought to respond delicately to the Iran-backed militia attacks while trying to avoid inflaming politics in the country, where the presence of U.S. troops has been criticized by Shia hard-liners.
Israel officials didn’t make any public statement about Friday’s U.S. strikes. Hamas said the U.S. action threatened the security of Syria and Iraq and covered up for Israel’s operation in Gaza and the deaths of Palestinians.
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