US STATE DEPARTMENT: THE STRIKES AGAINST THE MILITIAS IN IRAQ WILL NOT BE THE LAST
The US State Department confirmed on Thursday that the strikes launched by the United States against pro-Iranian militias in Iraq will not be the last in a series of reactions to the attack that killed three American soldiers in Jordan.
Regional spokesman for the US State Department, Samuel Warburg, said in an interview with a program in Iraqi on “Al-Hurra Iraq” that will be broadcast at a later time, that the United States will hold accountable the party carrying out the attack on US forces in Jordan.
Warburg added, “The strikes represent a clear message to the militias and Iran that it is time to stop these attacks,” noting that the United States does not want to see any escalation in the region.
Warburg stressed that “the United States will take all necessary measures to protect itself and American forces anywhere, whether in Iraq, Syria, or anywhere else.”
The American official said that the strikes of the past few days will not be the last regarding American reactions. “We have other tools that we can use, including military reactions or imposing sanctions.”
Warburg pointed out that “the Iraqi government has the responsibility to protect all the international coalition soldiers present on its territory because they are there at its invitation, and it has the responsibility to coordinate with us in order to protect them.”
The prominent leader of the Hezbollah Brigades militia in Iraq, Abu Baqir al-Saadi, was killed in a strike carried out by an American drone that targeted his car in a vital neighborhood in Baghdad on Wednesday evening.
The strike came a week after American raids in Iraq and Syria, and after Washington vowed to target armed factions linked to Iran after an attack on January 28 in which three American soldiers were killed in Jordan on the border with Syria.
In a statement on Thursday, the Iraqi government condemned “a clear-cut assassination by directing an air strike in the middle of a residential neighborhood in the capital, Baghdad, in a manner that does not care about the lives of civilians and international laws.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani launched talks with Washington regarding the future of the coalition, with the aim of setting a timetable that would allow a gradual withdrawal from the country.
Since mid-October, American forces and the international coalition in Iraq and Syria have been subjected to more than 165 attacks, a direct reflection of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
Most of these attacks were claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, which includes militants in pro-Iranian factions, most notably the Hezbollah Brigades.
The factions say that their attacks come in solidarity with Gaza and against American support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
Officials in Washington said that the attack that took place in Jordan against American forces bore the “imprint of the Hezbollah Brigades,” which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.
The United States deploys about 2,500 soldiers in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria as part of the international coalition established in 2014 to combat ISIS.
Several countries participate in this coalition, which supported the Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State. These forces are still present in Iraq with the aim of providing advice and support to the Iraqi forces and preventing the re-emergence of the organization.
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