The United States said on Friday it had “successfully” carried out retaliatory strikes against elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria, with Joe Biden warning that it would “continue.”
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Earlier on Friday, the American president attended the ceremonial handover of the bodies of three American soldiers killed in Jordan on Sunday at a base in the northeastern United States. Washington blamed Iranian-backed groups.
Two hours after the hearse doors closed on the three coffins covered with the American flag, the American army attacked.
The operation lasted about thirty minutes and was “a success,” the White House said.
The Pentagon said the operation mobilized numerous fighter aircraft, including long-range bombers, which attacked more than 85 locations.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said at least 18 pro-Iranian fighters had been killed in eastern Syria.
Security sources also confirmed to AFP bombings targeting positions of pro-Iranian armed groups in western Iraq, particularly in the Al-Qaim sector on the border with neighboring Syria.
These attacks constituted a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” a military spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani criticized in a statement, saying he feared “catastrophic consequences for the security and stability of Iraq and the region.”
“Our response began today. “It will continue according to the schedule and in the locations we have determined,” Joe Biden said.
“The United States does not want conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let those who wish to harm us know this clearly: if you touch an American, we will respond,” the American president further stated in a press release.
The American executive had already indicated that the reprisals would be varied and spread over a longer period of time against different targets.
Joe Biden, who is running for a second term, has been under intense pressure to respond to the deaths of three American soldiers killed by a drone strike in Jordan near the Syrian border.
American forces stationed in Iraq and Syria have been subjected to numerous drone and missile attacks since mid-October.
The bodies of William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy, Ladon Sanders and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, soldiers from the American state of Georgia (South), were removed one by one from an imposing military transport plane at the Dover base (Northeast) on Friday. .
Joe Biden remained motionless in the cold wind, his hand on his heart and his gaze straight ahead as the bodies passed by.
The 81-year-old Democrat was accompanied by his wife Jill Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chief of Staff Charles Brown and other VIPs.
Away from the press, the families of the three soldiers were also present.
The ceremony, regulated to the millimeter, lasted about ten minutes, in complete silence, interrupted only by orders addressed to the military.
At the same location, Joe and Jill Biden had already taken part in the repatriation of the bodies of American soldiers who died in an attack on Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, at the time of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.