The US bombed targets in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border on Thursday. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 22 members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were killed in the strikes, although the number is unconfirmed. An Iraqi militia source told Reuters that at least one person was killed in the bombing. The PMF is a group of mostly Shia Iraqi state-sponsored militias that formed in 2014 to fight ISIS.
The US framed the bombing as “defensive,” blaming the groups they targeted for recent rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq, but no evidence has been presented to substantiate the claim. Earlier this month, rockets hit a US base in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, killing one contractor.
“We’re confident that the target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said of Thursday’s bombing. The Pentagon described the targets as “infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria.”
“Specifically, the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada are both militias under the umbrella of the PMF. Kataib Hezbollah denied any role in the Erbil attack or other recent incidents at US facilities.
“We absolutely did not target Erbil or the Green Zone and have no knowledge of the group that did,” Kataib Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Mohi told Reuters, referring to the Green Zone in Baghdad where the US embassy is located. Rockets were fired towards the embassy on Monday, but no casualties were reported.
Mohi said he wants the US to withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops it has in Iraq and believes detente between the US and Iran can lead to that, a sign that Kataib Hezbollah has no interest in escalating tensions. Iran has also denied any role in the Erbil attack. With the Iranians seeking sanctions relief from the new administration, they have no reason to orchestrate attacks on the US in Iraq.
Considering the US has been bombing Iraq for 30 years now, there are many groups inside Iraq that have their own reasons to fire on the US. There are also groups like ISIS that would benefit from a war between the US and Iraq’s Shia militias.
At the end of 2019, the US blamed Kataib Hezbollah for an attack on a base in Kirkuk, Iraq, that killed a US contractor. The Kirkuk attack kicked off the series of events that led to the US assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, who was killed alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of the PMF.
Without presenting evidence, the Trump administration blamed Kataib Hezbollah for the Kirkuk attack and bombed members of the militia in Iraq and Syria. The airstrikes killed 25 Kataib Hezbollah fighters, enraging many in Iraq, and demonstrators stormed the US embassy in Baghdad. President Trump then ordered the drone strike that killed Soleimani and Muhandis. It was later revealed that Iraqi intelligence believed the Kirkuk attack was more likely carried out by ISIS, a group that celebrated Soleimani’s killing.
Oops, sorry. Are you sure that wasn’t you that shot that projectile…….?????????
And so it begins
A deadly US bombing was perpetrated that just happened to occur within a certain country… Where do they find the gall to not even mention the government of the country they bombed?!
Bomb Syria for and attack in Iraq?
There is a certain Zionist logic in this , Israel can save money on fuel if Washington bombs Syria.
You lost me at “Zionist”.
Israel is regularly attacking Syria
Biden seems eager to keep the war machine happy, after just 5 weeks in office
Joe of dementia should send son Hunter to Damascus so that he might negotiate an insurance contract to protect against such unpleasantness.
Its amazing how the media is lock-step with the the military. Sixty Minutes and Scott Pelley’s fabricated and now debunked assertion of Assad using chemical weapons on his people last Sunday was a pre-cursor to a continuation of our occupation of Iraq and Syria. This also means the Israelis and our Zionist Occupied Government can continue to bomb that country at will till there will be nothing left of civil society
“We’re confident that the target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said of Thursday’s bombing.
Translation: They were brown and were underneath the bombs we dropped.
Well, he hasn’t started any new wars, so he’s OK…..right ?
Biden’s first bombing! How touching! Trump’s was the one in Yemen, where a nine year old girl was killed, the last family member of an American-Yemeni preacher, who never killed anyone nor advocated killing Americans. What was his sin? Politically inconvenient. Obama targeted him like he was some major military figure. For that, his American born 16 year old son was also killed by Obama on his birthday, and as soon as Trump took over, he killed his American born daughter. What did Trump have to say for himself? He said the operation was already in the pipeline from Obama administration, and he did not review it.
Kataib Whatever — as anybody cares. Planners just need a foreign sounding name.
This is Iraqi-Syrian border that we bombed umpteen times before. As soon as Iraq establishes border control — we bomb it.
What is US doing in Syria’s Deir Azzor? There is Al-Tanf base there straddling Syria-Jordan border. This is the gate through which uncontrolled weapons and mysterious “desert” ISIS come from. But to have an unobstructed transfer of arms and shadowy people to Iraq, this border pass is critical.
Now Iraqi government is also complicit in this game. Iraq should claim the border post, and staff it with Iraqi soldiers, not militia. Then bombing would be a crime.
But as it is — Iraq does not want to fight this one. And the supply of all shadowy operations in Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan or Iranian cult group in border with Iran — can go on.
And, yes. In case you heard this one — fabled SDF, aka Kurds, are the reason we are in Deir Azzor. Except that the region is populated by Syrians loyal to Damascus, but who cares. There are less then 1% Kurds living there.
Don’t forget that the US is the leader of the “rules-based world” which was frequently pointed out to us by that delightful Mr Pompeo. US presence in Syria robbing it’s oil and massacring it’s people must all be legal.
How can I forget! It should be written more precisely — OUR rules-based order, we make up rules, and if international laws coincide by some chance with our rule based decision, great. Otherwise too bad for international law. We are versed in Roman law —perhaps just one in particular. Everything is SUI GENERIS. Thus, our rule applicable — let us say on a set date, by Thursday morning, may not apply by afternoon, as we sanction a specific judge that in country X made a decision displeasing us.
Everything now must have the prefix OUR. Our rules-based international order, our democracy. Just not clear who counts as US.
The problem is — the golden rule. Who has the gold rules. And our gold is more like gold-plated, and tarnished.
Not hard to imagine how cowardly these bombings appear to the victim populations, …and what a big man and credit to his race is Gen. Lloyd Austin.
Biden went out of his way to have diversity in who he hired. But he made damn sure they were warmongers first.
One person killed has been identified as Sayyid Rahi Salam Zayed originally from Al-Hilla Iraq.
He was defending his country and Syria from ISIS. He left a wife and two children.
Empire strikes back — and who cares about the dead. Biden said, America is back! He is just warming up.
These attacks have nothing to do with militia attacks in Iraq, and are part of US/Israel takeover strategies.
Abu Kamal (Al Bukamal) is located in the SE corner of Syria at the Iraq border on the Euphrates River. It’s a very important location for traffic between Baghdad and Damascus, which the US (Un-Stability) wants to disrupt. Syria with the support of Iran and Russia regained control of Abu Kamal three years ago, defeating ISIS. On 30 September 2019, after eight years of closure, Syria and Iraq reopened the Al-Qa’im border crossing between Abu Kamal and Al-Qa’im. Since then Israel has regularly bombed Abu Kamal and its Iran interests, and now the US is joining the bombing in order to close the border to international traffic, and probably to support ISIS.
https://www.mei.edu/sites/default/files/abu%2520kamal.jpg
from Task & Purpose…
Biden gets his first Middle East airstrikes out of the way
Mazel tov, President Biden, and welcome to the club.
US is a terrorist state that kills, rubs, cheat ordinary people and sovereign nations. …Total fabricated lies for the identity of the victims….! PMF is based in Iraq…What were they doing in Syria…?!!! US don’t dare to attack Iran directly so they attack these defenseless Shia groups and they are calling them Iranians or Iranian-back militia army
USA refuses to leave because they were just attacked.
USA are attacked because they refuse to leave.
What a beautiful circle.
Bingo! And the music continues to play for the Military Industrial Complex. The sound of money flowing……………..every bomb, rocket, drone, bullet is replaced. Rinse, repeat.
the US is cruising for a bruising
Trump is back… Like he never left!
He is an inspiration to his successor
It’s official, Joe Biden is America’s 46th war criminal in chief.
We bomb and kill 22 people from a group that says it did not attack us.
Can we now expect that it will attack us, in retaliation for our unprovoked murders? That is what the US would do.
this is what USA wants
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202102261082197048-lavrov-russia-has-information-that-us-plans-to-stay-in-syria-forever-destroy-the-country/
Russia and the US in Syria forever? Inasmuch as the Energy Cliff is about 15 years or less henceforth, I would qualify it as such.
The American experience is toxic and they’ll be bled dry, whether they’re a NATO partner or a contrived Middle East foe.
There’s much to be admired re Russia’s mineral and oil resources and their lead in hypersonic weapons. As to the latter, if and when the US reaches relative parity, then we should witness more US military deployments toward Russia and China.
Due to the dollar’s reserve currency status as well as US investor greed and ignorance, $100 trillion in off budget spending can be concealed with nary an uproar about budgetary consequences and domestic inflation concerns. The level of secret or unscrutinized military programs and payola re foreign leaders must be mind boggling.
The US government doctors economic statistics, so you can appreciate the value placed on government bureaucrats and their qualifications with doctorates in economics.
The bombings will continue until peace and prosperity returns to Syria.
Tell us Barbara Ann, when are we going to bomb bomb bomb Iran.