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The United States has launched airstrikes on the facilities of two groups of militias backed by Iran on the border between Syria and Iraq, just over a week after the election victory in the run-up to the hard line Ebrahim Raisi as Iranian president.
John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said the weapons operations and storage facilities had been targeted at Syria and Iraq, which were being used to launch drone strikes against troops and troops. American facilities.
Kirby said the airstrikes were “defensive” and were a response to a “continuous series of attacks by Iran-backed groups aimed at U.S. interests in Iraq.” He added that they were being used by several Iran-backed militias included Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.
“The United States took the necessary, appropriate, and deliberate steps to limit the risk of escalation, but also to send a clear and unequivocal deterrent message,” Kirby said.
The strikes marked the second time President Joe Biden ordered the use of force in the region, after the US carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria in late February.
Military action followed the Raisi’s choice, a conservative cleric and head of the judiciary, who gave regime leaders control of all branches of the Iranian state for the first time in nearly a decade.
The Biden administration is looking for it re-entering the 2015 nuclear pact with Iran and has initiated several rounds of indirect negotiations in Vienna. The talks have not yet made progress.
Tehran has repeatedly demanded Washington lift sanctions before he agrees to halt his nuclear program. Since the Trump administration withdrew from the deal, Iran has violated the limits of its nuclear production, causing concerns to the UN nuclear watchdog.
Biden has pledged to rejoin the nuclear deal if Tehran fulfills it again. But his administration is under pressure from U.S. politicians, Israel and Washington’s Arab partners to take a hard line on Iran’s support for regional militias and its missile program.
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that “protecting military heroes who stand up for our freedoms is a sacred priority.”
He added: “Congress hopes to receive and review the formal notification of this operation under the War Powers Act and receive additional information from the administration.”
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