The United States carried out strikes in Iraq and Syria targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and pro-Iranian groups, the US Central Military Command in the Middle East (Centcom) reported on Friday.
At least 18 pro-Iranian fighters were killed by American air strikes in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported, revising an initial toll of 13 deaths.
The air strikes involved over 125 precision munitions, Centcom said, adding that over 85 sites were targeted. These included command and intelligence centres along with drone and missile storage infrastructure belonging to militias and Iranian forces that allowed attacks on US and Coalition forces, including one which killed three US soldiers on Sunday.
“Our response began today,” US President Joe Biden, who ordered the strikes, said on Friday. “It will continue at times and locations of our choosing.”
“The United States does not seek conflict either in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who wish to harm us know this: if you harm an American, we will respond,” President Biden added in a statement.
He had earlier attended the repatriation of the remains of the three American soldiers killed in Jordan on Sunday.
