Joe Biden’s First Bombing: America to …

A The US airstrike on what that country has identified as installations in Syria of an Iraqi militia backed by Iran has killed at least 22 people. This is Joe Biden’s first bombing as president and was in retaliation for recent attacks on US troops in Iraq. “Under President Biden’s leadership, US military forces carried out airstrikes earlier this evening against infrastructure used by Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria,” Pentagon spokesman confirmed .

The US Department of Defense said it carried out airstrikes at a border checkpoint between Syria and Iraq used by these groups, destroying “several facilities”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) assured that 22 people died after attack destroyed three trucks loaded with ammunition from Iraq near the Syrian town of Bukamal in northeastern Syria.

All the dead belonged to the Chopped force of al-Shaabi, sponsored by the Iraqi state and which brings together various small militias linked to Iran, the OSDH added.

Thursday night’s attack came after three rocket attacks against facilities located in Iraq and used by US forces and the coalition fighting against the radical Islamist group Islamic State (IS).

One of these attacks on a military complex in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, on February 15, killed a civilian and a foreign contractor who was working with coalition forces and injured several American contractors and a soldier.

“These attacks were authorized in response to recent attacks on US and coalition personnel in Iraq, and the continuing threats to such personnel, “Pentagon spokesman John Kirby added in a statement. Kirby said the target was a border checkpoint used by Iraqi armed groups backed by Iran, notably Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada, who are part of Hashed al-Shaabi.

The attacks in Iraq by groups operating under Iranian leadership have posed a challenge to the new Biden administration, at a time that opens the door to resume negotiations with Tehran on its nuclear program.

The growing violence between the United States and these militias in Iraq comes a week after the start of the arrival of Pope Francis, during a pontiff’s first trip to the Arab country.

The US government says it wants reinstate the 2015 agreement, which former President Donald Trump left in 2018, and which aims to freeze Iran’s nuclear aspirations. But Washington also sees Tehran as a permanent security threat in the Middle East and maintains that it will not tolerate “evil activities” carried out by the Islamic Republic.

The United States suspects that Iran is seeking an opportunity to avenge the assassination by American forces of General Qasem Soleimani, perpetrated a year ago. Soleimani, a senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, was Tehran’s key link with allied groups and figures in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and other parts of the region. He was killed in a US drone strike as he arrived in Baghdad to meet with senior Iraqi officials.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that the United States would “hold Iran accountable for the actions of its proxies attacking the Americans”, but that it would not “blame it” and would not risk destabilizing Iraq.