In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said the strikes hit 85 targets at seven facilities. In a subsequent briefing with reporters, National Security Council spokesperson John F. Kirby said four of the facilities were in Syria and three were in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, director of operations for the Joint Staff, said fighter aircraft from U.S. Central Command and B-1 bombers flying from the continental U.S. conducted the strikes, deploying more than 125 precision-guided munitions.
“The facilities that were struck included command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces,” a CENTCOM statement added.
Sims said the strikes appeared to be successful and all U.S. aircraft were safe.
Sims and Kirby said the decision to strike Feb. 2 was driven by the weather and a desire to avoid unnecessary casualties. Sims did say, however, that officials expected there to be militant casualties at the facilities.
More strikes will come, Austin said, following up on previous comments suggesting America would not be a passive witness to Iran-sponsored violence.
“This is the start of our response,” Austin said. “The President has directed additional actions to hold the IRGC and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on U.S. and Coalition Forces. These will unfold at times and places of our choosing. We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, but the President and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces.”
Kirby repeatedly declined to say when and where more strikes would be launched.
Some tweets below suggesting these strikes are mostly hype- thoughts?
5 replies on “US Launches Dozens of Retaliatory Strikes in Iraq and Syria for Deadly Attack”
If they had hit anything more than a lump of sand we’d have sensational film for the 6 o’clock news. This is just to hit the revenge button on a slow news day. Just a pathetic attempt to portray imperial virility.
Apparently there are more to come?
But will they or was this enough “sound and fury” for the coliseum spectators?
I do not think that this is about “revenge”. That is an empty pretense. The Americans are hitting Iranian proxies (so they think) and Iran as a member of OPEC has just joined the BRICS. This is about the military industrial complex protecting the Petro Dollar as the reserve “currency”.
Hi dennis
I think that protecting the US currency is a factor in everything the US does..
Or projecting power— even if it’s not much of a power projection
the media amplifies the perception