The United States military launched air strikes against Iranian forces and Tehran-backed militia groups in Iraq and Syria on Friday, killing at least 18 fighters, in retaliation for the deadly drone attack on an American base in Jordan.

Long-range bombers flown from the US hit “more than 85 targets” linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force as well as “affiliated militia groups,” the US Central Command or CENTCOM said in a statement.

“Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond,” he added.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told journalists the strikes lasted about 30 minutes, though they involved a lengthy trip for the B-1 bombers that flew from the US.

He said the Defense Department is still assessing damage from the strikes — which hit targets at seven separate facilities — but that the US believes the raids were successful, and made clear that more would follow.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that at least 26 major sites housing pro-Iranian groups were destroyed in Syria, including weapons depots.

A weapons warehouse and a command center belonging to pro-Iranian groups were also targeted in western Iraq, along the Syrian border, two Iraq security sources told Agence France-Presse, resulting in at least “some injuries.”

Iraq, whose prime minister called for the departure of international troops after a previous US strike in Baghdad, condemned the latest military action as a violation of its sovereignty.

Kirby said Washington “did inform the Iraqi government prior to the strikes,” but did not elaborate on Baghdad’s response.

Earlier Friday, Biden attended a solemn military ritual at a Delaware air base for the three soldiers killed in Sunday’s drone attack in Jordan.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown, also attended what is known as a “dignified transfer” — their presence highlighting the relative rarity of returning dead US service members in the wake of the exit from Afghanistan in 2021.

The soldiers killed Sunday were the first US military deaths from hostile fire in the Middle East since the 7 October surprise attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.

US and coalition troops have been attacked more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since mid-October with weapons including drones, rockets and short-range ballistic missiles.

WITH AFP