The army The US bombed elite Iranian troops and pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the deaths of three soldiers at a base in Jordan.
Joe Biden had promised to respond to the deadly drone attack carried out on Sunday near the border with Syria, which Washington attributed to groups backed by Iran.
Our response began today. “It will continue at the time and in the places we choose,” warned President Joe Biden this Friday Bombings to pro-Iranian forces in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for the deaths of three American soldiers.
| Secondary explosions following US airstrikes against an IRGC-affiliated missile site in Al-Qaim, Iraq. pic.twitter.com/fxGc7IrSLB
– News Alert (@AlertaNoticiera) February 2, 2024
“More than 125 precision munitions units were used in the airstrikes,” the military’s Middle East command, Centcom, said on social media.
He specified that the targets also included command and intelligence centersand missile, missile and drone caches of militias and Iranian forces “that facilitated attacks against U.S. and coalition forces.”
“A headquarters of the armed factions in Al Qaim area was attacked, and according to preliminary information it is a light weapons depot,” an Interior Ministry official said.
The Pentagon said it was Friday’s attacks They mobilized numerous fighter aircraft, including long-range bombers, and targeted more than 85 targets.
This was announced by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). Bombings in eastern Syria killed “at least 13 pro-Iranian fighters.”
In recent days, the White House has said that Biden does not favor regional escalation or open conflict with Iran, so retaliation will be varied, directed at different targets and staggered.
US forces in the Middle East have nNumerous attacks since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
military honors
The bombings occurred on the same day that the bodies of William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, The Georgia State soldiers killed on Sunday were greeted with honors at the Dover base.
After a military ritual down to the millimeter, the coffins emerged one by one from a military transport plane and were loaded into a vehicle.
As tradition dictates, the army also takes care of the language: He calls it a “ceremonial handover” rather than a “ceremony.” and speaks of “boxes” instead of “coffins”.
The “ceremonial transfer” took place in the presence of the president, first lady Jill Biden and senior officials such as Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin.
Under a cloudy sky, They watched the coffins pass by in absolute silencewith your hands on your heart.
Behind the military severity lie the emotions and pain of the families who saw for the first time the coffins containing the remains of their loved ones.
At the same location, Joe and Jill Biden attended the repatriation of the bodies of US soldiers killed in an attack on Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The democrat, whose life was marked by personal tragedies, He has a reputation for being very sensitive to grieving families.
He called all the families of the three soldiers killed in Jordan, including to ensure that they accepted his presence at the repatriation ceremony.
Georgia’s main newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, published a video of one of those conversations.
| BREAKING: US warplanes were previously seen in the skies over western Iraq on the border with Syria. pic.twitter.com/T31QNPahTN
– News Alert (@AlertaNoticiera) February 2, 2024
They criticize Biden’s slow response
“I know that nothing anyone can say or do can ease your pain, I’ve been through it (…). I want you to know that you are in my prayers, in my heart,” the president told the parents of Private Kennedy Sanders.
“I got one of those calls,” Biden added, referring to the call that announced the deaths of his first wife and infant daughter in a car accident in 1972.
He also spoke about the death of his eldest son, BeauHe died of cancer in 2015. This moment will not end the avalanche of Republican criticism against him.
He had to wait until people died to say, “Okay, maybe we need to do something.” Are you kidding me? Nikki Haley, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, attacked on Thursday.
His rival, former President Donald Trump, the heavy favorite, has attacked Biden’s “weakness.”
With information from AFP.
ORP