The United States launched airstrikes against 85 Iranian-linked sites in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the assault on troops

The United States launched airstrikes against 85 Iranian-linked sites in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the assault on troops

On Saturday, February 3, 2024, in al-Qaim, Iraq, members of the Iraqi Shia Popular Mobilization Forces clean up wreckage after an American bombing. The US military conducted airstrikes on over 85 sites, according to a statement released by the US Central Command on Friday. against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran and its allied militias in Syria and Iraq. In retaliation for the assault on US forces, the US conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, striking around 85 locations connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, according to Reuters.

Prior to this, the US would react against the militia, as stated in a warning that President Joe Biden and other senior US officials had made. He made it very evident that there would be a "layered response" that would take place gradually rather than a single attack.

Following the bombings on Friday, Biden released an official statement in which he said, "Conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world is not what the United States wants." However, everyone attempting to hurt us has to understand that we will retaliate if you hurt an American.

"U.S. military troops bombed locations in Syria and Iraq this afternoon that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its linked militias utilize to strike U.S. personnel, under my orders. Today was the first day of our reaction. "It will go on at the times and locations of our choosing," said Biden.

According to CENTCOM, the targets of the attacks were logistics and ammunition supply chain facilities of the militia groups and their IRGC sponsors, who enabled attacks against US and coalition forces. Other facilities targeted included leadership and oversight operations centers, intelligence centers, rocket and missile storage, as well as unmanned aerial vehicle storage.

The strikes in Iraq and Syria "represent another bold and fundamental mistake by the United States that will only result in increased tension as well as instability," according to a statement issued by Nasser Kanani, the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, according to Reuters.

Iraq requested official complaint from the US chargé d'affaires in Baghdad in reaction to the strikes in that country. Meanwhile, the US and Britain conducted 14 raids in the Yemeni governorates of Taiz and Hodeidah on Saturday, according to the Houthi-run Yemeni News Agency (Sabaa).