{"id":37030,"date":"2021-02-28T10:18:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T04:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=37030"},"modified":"2021-02-28T10:18:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T04:48:26","slug":"us-air-strike-in-syria-a-warning-to-iran-president-joe-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=37030","title":{"rendered":"US air strike in Syria a warning to Iran: President Joe Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON: <\/strong>US President Joe Biden said on Friday that a US air strike against an Iranian-backed militia in eastern Syria, the first since he took office, should be seen by Iran as a warning.<\/p>\n

Asked what the message was from the air strike, Biden, speaking in Houston during a tour of relief efforts after a huge winter storm in Texas, said: \u201cYou can\u2019t act with impunity. Be careful.\u201d Syria and Iran on Friday condemned the attack with Damascus calling it a \u201cbad sign\u201d from the new Biden administration and Tehran saying it would further destabilize the region.<\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said two F-15E \u201cStrike Eagles\u201d dropped seven precision-guided munitions on Thursday on facilities in eastern Syria used by the militias believed to be behind a spate of rocket attacks on US troops in Iraq.<\/p>\n

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden was sending \u201can unambiguous message.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s going to act to protect Americans and when threats are posed, he has the right to take an action at the time and in the manner of his choosing,\u201d Psaki said.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the administration wanted to make it \u201cvery, very clear \u2014 notably to Iran\u2013 that they cannot act with impunity against our people, our partners, our interests. \u201cAnd I think \u2014 and expect \u2014 that that message was clearly received,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n

Syria condemned the strike as \u201ccowardly American aggression.\u201d \u201cIt is a bad sign regarding the policies of the new US administration which should adhere to international (norms),\u201d the foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n

The Iranian foreign ministry strongly condemned what it called \u201cillegal attacks\u201d that are a \u201cclear violation of human rights and international law.\u201d The foreign ministry spokesman said that the air strikes would lead to \u201cintensifying military conflicts and further destabilize the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hashed casualties<\/p>\n

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 22 fighters from Iraq\u2019s state-sponsored Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force were killed.<\/p>\n

It said that US warplanes hit three trucks loaded with munitions coming from Iraq near the Syrian border town of Albu Kamal and destroyed border posts of the Hashed, an umbrella group that includes small militias with ties to Iran.<\/p>\n

Kirby said that the Pentagon had received \u201cpreliminary details\u201d about casualties but declined to release any figures. He said that nine \u201cfacilities\u201d used by the militias were \u201ctotally destroyed\u201d and two \u201cpartially destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the first US military action targeting such groups since Biden took office five weeks ago and came just as Washington had opened the door to resuming negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Kirby said the targeted location was used by Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada, two Iraqi pro-Iran groups operating under the Hashed. Kataeb Hezbollah said one of its fighters was killed and slammed the strike as a \u201cheinous crime in violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirby said that Iraqi and Kurdish partners had provided intelligence that led to the identification of the groups behind the rocket attacks. Iraq\u2019s defense ministry denied the US had coordinated with it to conduct the strike, saying it only works together with the US-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n

Syria\u2019s ally Russia also condemned the attack, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov questioning the Biden administration\u2019s plans in Syria. \u201cIt is very important for us to understand the United States\u2019 strategic line on the ground,\u201d Lavrov said.<\/p>\n

Kirby responded to criticism by Lavrov that Moscow had been notified just four or five minutes before the US struck the targets. \u201cWe did what we believe was the proper amount of notification for this. It shouldn\u2019t come as a shock to anybody that we\u2019re going to do what we have to do to notify but we\u2019re also going to do what we have to do to protect our forces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rocket attacks<\/p>\n

The US action followed three rocket attacks on facilities in Iraq used by US and coalition forces fighting IS.<\/p>\n

One of those strikes, on a military complex in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil on February 15, killed a civilian and a foreign contractor working with coalition forces, and wounded several US contractors and a soldier.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Biden administration offered talks with Iran led by European allies as it seeks to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal, left on the brink of collapse after Biden\u2019s predecessor Donald Trump withdrew from it.<\/p>\n

But the new administration has also made clear it would not brook \u201cmalign activities\u201d by Iran. Iran is believed to be searching for an opportunity to avenge the US assassination of top general Qasem Soleimani one year ago.<\/p>\n

Soleimani, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, was Iran\u2019s key liaison to its allies in Iraq and Syria, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Friday that a US air strike against an Iranian-backed militia in eastern Syria, the first since he took office, should be seen by Iran as a warning. Asked what the message was from the air strike, Biden, speaking in Houston during a tour of relief efforts after a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}