Hours before the attack, Biden met with his family and the bodies of three U.S. soldiers were returned.
Washington:
The United States carried out strikes on Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria on Friday in retaliation for a drone strike in Jordan that killed three American soldiers.
Here’s what we know so far:
Strike Iranian units, but not Iran
The U.S. military said the airstrikes hit more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, including the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and its affiliated militias.
At least 18 pro-Iranian militants have been killed in attacks in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Observatory, said at least 26 main residences of pro-Iran groups had been destroyed, including weapons depots.
President Joe Biden did not order an attack inside Iran, as some of his Republican rivals have argued, and does not appear to have ordered the assassination of a Quds Force commander in Baghdad in 2020, as his predecessor Donald Trump did Qasem Soleimani targeted Iranian individuals.
Biden said the United States “is not seeking conflict in the Middle East,” and his aides had earlier made clear they did not want a direct war with Iran.
What is the US response to this?
Biden, who faces a tough re-election battle in November, paid his respects and met with the families of the three U.S. soldiers as their bodies were repatriated. Hours later, the attack occurred.
On Sunday, an explosives-laden drone struck the remote Tower 22 base near Jordan’s border with Syria, killing soldiers and injuring dozens more. About 350 U.S. troops are deployed at the base to fight the Islamic State extremist organization.
The White House blamed the attack on the Iraqi Islamic Resistance, a loose alliance of pro-Iranian militants trying to drive U.S. troops out of Iraq.
According to a U.S. official, U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 165 times since mid-October. But Sunday’s attack was the first to result in the death of U.S. troops due to hostile fire, and there were reports that a U.S. drone returned to the base at the same time, causing chaos.
How did the conflict get to this point?
Tensions have escalated sharply since Iran-backed Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack in Israel on October 7, while Israel has launched a relentless bombing campaign in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The United States has repeatedly sought to contain conflicts through diplomacy and displays of force. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Hezbollah – arguably the most capable of the Iran-backed groups in the Arab world – has been seen as fairly restrained.
But this is not the first time the United States has taken military action in a conflict.
The Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group that controls much of the country, have launched a wave of attacks on vital commercial shipping on the Red Sea, claiming to be in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The United States and Britain have launched airstrikes against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen after repeated warnings failed to stop them.
Will the conflict continue?
Biden said the response would “continue at a time and place of our choosing,” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the president “has directed additional action” to hold the Revolutionary Guards and affiliated militias accountable.
Kataeb Hezbollah, a prominent pro-Iranian group in Iraq, said on Tuesday it would halt attacks on U.S. forces, but U.S. officials said they would continue to retaliate and judge militants by their actions rather than their words.
Prior to October 7, attacks against U.S. forces were almost at a standstill after secret talks between U.S. and Iranian officials.
Many U.S. experts believe Iran’s clerical state does not seek a broader conflict with the more powerful United States, but it has also gained new support in the Arab world for backing Hamas.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
