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US response to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and paramilitary groups

2024-02-03 18:45:56, Kosova & Bota CNA

The United States launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on Friday against Iran's Revolutionary Guards and the paramilitary groups that support them, in retaliation for the deaths of three American servicemen in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan on Sunday. According to the Reuters news agency, there were about 40 people killed in the hit facilities. As Voice of America correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, the airstrikes began shortly after President Joe Biden took part in the solemn ceremony at Dover Air Base, for the homecoming of the bodies of slain American soldiers.

Using long-range bombers, the US military struck three different locations in Iraq and four in Syria on Friday.

The attacks were ordered in retaliation by President Joe Biden.

A total of around 85 targets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the paramilitary groups that support it were hit.

These will not be the last attacks, Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said by phone Friday.

"At this moment, all the planes have returned undamaged. I will not give other details about the time when the other attacks will be carried out" , he said.

Among the targets were command and control centers, intelligence centers, missile and drone depots, logistics and ammunition supply facilities for paramilitary groups and their sponsors from Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Less than three hours before the airstrikes, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attended a solemn ceremony to welcome home the bodies of three slain American servicemen.

They were killed on Sunday by a drone strike on a US base in Jordan. The United States blamed the attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a parent organization for Iran-backed groups.

The timing of the US airstrikes was largely determined by the weather, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told VOA by phone.

"There was absolutely nothing to do with the timing of the ceremony today at Dover Air Force Base ," said Mr. Kirby.

The solemn ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Dellauer was attended by families of the fallen, military leaders, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, as well as Georgia state legislators from where the three deceased soldiers were: Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, Sergeant Kennedy Ladon Sander and Sergeant Breonna Alexsondria Moffett.

President Biden spoke to their families earlier in the week.

“I wish I didn't have to make this call. I know that there is nothing that can be said or done to ease the pain. I've experienced it myself ," President Biden told Oneida parents Oliver Sanders and Shawn Sanders by phone.

With thousands of American servicemen killed abroad over the years, not all solemn ceremonies have been attended by presidents. This is the second such ceremony for President Biden.

In August 2021, he attended the ceremony for the 13 soldiers killed in Kabul during the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

And now the president faces the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which risks expanding into a wider regional conflict./ VOA

"I think many countries in the region are waiting to see what will happen. I don't think anyone wants to turn it into a general conflict where everyone has to take sides ," said James Robbins, from the World Policy Institute.

Meanwhile, President Biden and American officials say repeatedly that: The United States does not seek war with Iran./ VOA