Mediaboss Marketing

WASHINGTON The United States carried out airstrikes early Monday morning in Iraq and Syria against two Iranian-backed militias that the Pentagon said had conducted drone strikes against American personnel in Iraq in recent weeks, the Defense Department said.

At President Bidens direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region, the Pentagon spokesman, John F. Kirby, said in a statement.

Mr. Kirby said the facilities were used by Iranian-backed militias, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, to store arms and ammunition for carrying out attacks against places where Americans were located in Iraq. There were no immediate reports of casualties but a military after-action review is ongoing, Pentagon officials said.

The strikes were the second time that Mr. Biden has ordered the use of force in the region. The United States carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria in late February against buildings belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militias responsible for attacks against American and allied personnel in Iraq.

The latest strikes were carried out by U.S. Air Force fighter-bombers based in the region.

Pentagon planners have been gathering information for weeks on the sites and militia networks that use them, American officials said on Sunday. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed Mr. Biden on attack options early last week, and Mr. Biden approved striking the three targets, the officials said.

The strikes were carried out a little more than a week after Iran elected a hard-liner, Ebrahim Raisi, as its next president.

The military action also came as the negotiations intended to bring the United States and Tehran back into compliance with an international nuclear accord have reached a crucial juncture. President Donald J. Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018, and Mr. Biden has been seeking to revive it.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken discussed the negotiations on the nuclear deal with Israels foreign minister, Yair Lapid, who said Israel had serious reservations about the accord, which would ease sanctions on Iran in return for limits on its nuclear program.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration blocked access to myriad websites linked to Iran after the nation held a presidential vote to install Mr. Raisi, a close ally of the clerical governments supreme leader, as its top elected official.

Pressure has been building for weeks from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and from some of Mr. Bidens top advisers and commanders, to retaliate against the threat posed by the drones to American diplomats and the 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq who are training and advising Iraqi forces.

At least five times since April, the Iranian-backed militias have used small, explosive-laden drones that divebomb and crash into their targets in late-night attacks on Iraqi bases including those used by the C.I.A. and U.S. Special Operations units, according to American officials. So far, no Americans have been hurt in the attacks, but officials worry about the precision of the drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles, or U.A.V.s.

The drones are part of a rapidly evolving threat from Iranian proxies in Iraq, with militia forces specialized in operating more sophisticated weaponry hitting some of the most sensitive American targets in attacks that evaded U.S. defenses.

Iran weakened by years of harsh economic sanctions is using its proxy militias in Iraq to step up pressure on the United States and other world powers to negotiate an easing of those sanctions as part of a possible revival of the 2015 nuclear deal. Iraqi and American officials say Iran has devised the drone attacks to minimize casualties to avoid prompting U.S. retaliation.

American officials said the strikes against two targets in eastern Syria and a third just across the border in Iraq were carried out about 1 a.m. Monday local time by a mix of Air Force F-16s and F-15Es based in the region.

The fighter-bombers dropped multiple bombs 500-pound and 2,000-pound satellite-guided munitions on each of the three structures. American officials said the militias used the sites targeted in Syria mainly for storage and logistics purposes; the site hit in Iraq was used to launch and recover the armed drones, which officials said were either made in Iran or used Iranian technology.

Mr. Kirby and other administration officials characterized the strikes as defensive, but leading lawmakers demanded more details on Sunday.

Congress must be briefed on these airstrikes without delay, said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who has led the fight to limit presidential war powers for a decade from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If the strikes were against militias that were using U.A.V.s to attack American personnel, that would be a conventional self-defense action that is justified. But we need to know more.

Michael P. Mulroy, a former C.I.A. officer and top Middle East policy official at the Pentagon, has warned that with the technology provided by Irans Quds Force the foreign-facing arm of Irans security apparatus the drones are rapidly becoming more sophisticated at a relatively low cost.

This action should send a message to Iran that it cannot hide behind its proxy forces to attack the United States and our Iraqi partners, Mr. Mulroy said on Sunday.

But Mr. Bidens top aides have also said they want to avoid the angry rhetorical jabs and tit-for-tat threats that Mr. Trump often engaged in with Iran and its proxies in Iraq, and avoid escalating tensions with Tehran at a time when the White House is trying to nail down the nuclear deal.

The airstrikes in February against the same militias were also a relatively small, carefully calibrated military response: seven 500-pound bombs dropped on a small cluster of buildings at an unofficial crossing at the Syria-Iraq border used to smuggle across weapons and fighters.

Those earlier strikes were just over the border in Syria to avoid diplomatic blowback to the Iraqi government. The same calculus influenced the planning for the strike on Monday two of the three targets were in Syria along the Iraqi border, and the third was just inside Iraqi territory. The strikes took place early Monday in part to avoid any civilian casualties, officials said.

The United States took necessary, appropriate and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message, Mr. Kirby said.

How the militias and Iran will respond is unclear, and American officials said the relatively small set of airstrikes were unlikely to stop the militia attacks completely. After the February strikes, there was a lull in militia activity against American locations for several weeks, but then an even more dangerous threat emerged: the small armed drones.

Jennifer Steinhauer, Julian Barnes and John Ismay contributed reporting.

Read the original:
U.S. Carries Out Airstrikes in Iraq and Syria - The New ...

The U.S. military has conducted defensive precision airstrikes against three facilities near the Iraq-Syria border region Sunday evening.

According to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, the facilities are used by several Iran-backed militia groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), that engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq.

"As demonstrated by this evening's strikes, President Biden has been clear that he will act to protect U.S. personnel. Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting U.S. interests in Iraq, the president directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks," Kirby added. "The United States took necessary, appropriate and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

A U.S. defense official with knowledge of the strikes told Fox News that U.S. Air Force F-15s and F-16s were used in the operation. The strikes took place at approximately 6 p.m. Eastern Time, or 1 a.m. local time.

At least one facility used by Irans militia forces to launch and recover drones was destroyed, the official added. Recent strikes by the crude drones have targeted Americans in Baghdad and Erbil in northern Iraq.

The official said he does not expect "a lot of casualties" from the Iranian-backed forces because of the time of the strike.

All U.S. jets returned to base without a problem, the official added.

Sunday's airstrikes are the latest operation carried out against Iranian-backed military groups, following Biden's first known military action in February, when an airstrike targeted a compound in Syria operated by KaitaibHezbollah andKaitaibSayyid al-Shuhada.

Originally posted here:
US military launches airstrikes against three facilities ...

WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. military, under the direction of President Joe Biden, conducted airstrikes Sunday against what it said were facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups near the border between Iraq and Syria.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said the militias were using the facilities to launch unmanned aerial vehicle attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq.

Kirby said the U.S. military targeted three operational and weapons storage facilities two in Syria and one in Iraq.

He described the airstrikes as defensive, saying they were launched in response to the attacks by Iran-backed groups.

The United States took necessary, appropriate, and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message, Kirby said.

Sundays strikes mark the second time the Biden administration has taken military action in the region. In February, the U.S. launched airstrikes against facilities in Syria, near the Iraqi border, that it said were used by Iranian-backed militia groups.

The Pentagon said those strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq in February that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops.

At that time, Biden said Iran should view his decision to authorize U.S. airstrikes in Syria as a warning that it can expect consequences for its support of militia groups that threaten U.S. interests or personnel.

You cant act with impunity. Be careful, Biden said when a reporter asked what message he had intended to send.

On Sunday, Kirby said Biden has been clear that he will act to protect U.S. personnel. Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting U.S. interests in Iraq, the President directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks.

The Pentagon spokesman added: As a matter of international law, the United States acted pursuant to its right of self-defense. The strikes were both necessary to address the threat and appropriately limited in scope.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Sunday that the U.S. airstrikes appear to be a targeted and proportional response to a serious and specific threat, adding, Protecting the military heroes who defend our freedoms is a sacred priority.

More here:
US airstrikes target Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq ...

CAIRO, June 27 (Reuters) - Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Jordan's King Abdullah met in Baghdad on Sunday during the first visit by an Egyptian head of state to Iraq since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.

The first Gulf War ruptured diplomatic relations between Iraq and Egypt, but these have improved in recent years with many senior officials from both countries exchanging visits.

The United States has been urging Iraq to boost ties with Arab nations to counter Iran's influence and Sisi's visit is for a third round of talks between Egypt, Jordan and Iraq aimed at closer security, economic, trade and investment cooperation.

In recent years, Iraq had signed cooperation deals in the energy, health and education sectors with both countries.

On Sunday, the three leaders discussed several areas of regional interest, including the recent development on the Palestinian issue, combating terrorism and economic cooperation, an Egypt presidency statement said.

"The leaders stressed the need to intensify consultation and coordination between the three countries on the most important regional issues," it added.

Kadhimi, Sisi and Abdullah held a summit in Amman last year and were due to hold another in Baghdad in April, but this was delayed after a deadly train crash in Egypt. read more

Egypt signed 15 deals and memoranda of understanding in sectors including oil, roads, housing, construction and trade in February after Iraq's cabinet in December approved renewing its contract to supply the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) with 12 million barrels of Basra light crude for 2021.

Iraq is also planning to build a pipeline that is meant to export 1 million barrels per day of Iraqi crude from the southern city of Basra to Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba.

"There is genuine economic benefits that come from the "Arab Alliance" for all three partners, notably on energy diplomacy," Hafsa Halawa, non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, said, adding that there was an expectation that stronger relationships could reinvigorate U.S. engagement in the region.

"The hope remains that certain aspects of this alliance can pull Iraq slightly out of Iran's orbit of influence, but not by rushing back into U.S. arms and falling into the binary of being stuck between Washington and Tehran," she added.

(This story refiles to fix typo in spelling of analyst's name to "Halawa" not Halwa)

Reporting by Amina Ismail; Editing by Toby Chopra

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Original post:
'Arab Alliance' meets in Iraq in first visit in decades for an Egyptian leader - Reuters

The continued detention of former Islamic State fighters in Iraqi and Syrian camps is untenable, and more of them must be repatriated to their home countries, the US secretary of state said at a summit of the international coalition against Isis, held in Rome.

In remarks aimed primarily at France and the UK, Antony Blinken said: This situation is simply untenable. It just cant persist indefinitely.

The United States continues to urge countries including coalition partners to repatriate, rehabilitate and, where applicable, prosecute its citizens.

France and Britain, two of the closest US allies, have resisted calls to bring back their citizens, fearing they have no way of reliably prosecuting them. They fear the courts will require the former Isis fighters to be given their freedom, and so impose a major burden on the intelligence services.

Blinken praised Italy, his host, as one of the few western European nations to repatriate its citizens, and also hailed efforts by central Asian nations such as Kazakhstan, which he said had brought back 600 fighters and their family members and put them in rehabilitation programmes.

Before the summit, Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish group that did more than any force to defeat Isis, also called on the coalition to help return these people to their home countries, fund education and deradicalisation programmes, and support stability and strong economic recovery in the liberated areas to address the root causes of extremism.

Gen Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of the US Central Command, told the American Enterprise Institute in a webinar in late April that children at al-Hawl camp are being radicalised, and unless we find a way to repatriate them, reintegrate them and deradicalise them, were giving ourselves the gift of fighters five to seven years down the road, and that is a profound problem. It will be a military problem in a few years if we dont fix the non-military aspects of it now.

There are said to be 60,000 former Isis supporters held at al-Hawl camp in northern Syria.

The 83-nation coalition against Isis fractured under the presidency of Donald Trump, partly due to his unilateral decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, so weakening the position of the Syrian Kurds, a decision that he later partially rescinded under pressure from allies and the US military.

Efforts have been stepped up to prosecute Isis supporters in Europe.

Recently, Belgiums federal prosecution service announced that 14 Isis supporters would face trial this year for their alleged role in assisting the Paris attacks of November 2015 in which 130 people were killed. The man suspected of being the only surviving attacker, Salah Abdeslam, is to face trial in Paris in September.

The US had a relatively small number of citizens travel to Syria, but it says it has repatriated 28 Americans: 12 adults and 16 children. Ten of the adults have been prosecuted for terrorist offences.

The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, warned Isis was repositioning itself in Africa in the wake of its military defeats in Iraq and Syria.

Overall, the coalition claims to have freed 8 million people from Isiss control in Iraq and Syria, but foreign ministers were under pressure to recognise that the jihadist threat has moved geographically from the Middle East.

Raab announced 12.6m to help fight Isis in the Lake Chad basin. The funds will be used to support both the regionally led military fight against Isis, and projects encouraging fighters to leave the terrorist group. Raab said in advance of the meeting: Two years since Daeshs territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria, the threat of Daesh and its hateful ideology has not gone away. Worryingly it continues to grow in Africa which is why we must work with our coalition partners to fight its poisonous propaganda on all fronts.

We stand shoulder to shoulder with our African partners to tackle the growing threat from Daesh-linked groups across Africa, particularly in the Lake Chad basin. We must ensure there are no safe havens for Daesh.

The Italian foreign minister also called on the coalition to set up a working party on Isis in Africa.

The shift will be welcomed by the French government, which has been battling terrorist groups in the Sahel for years.

View post:
US pushes France and UK to take Isis fighters back from Iraq and Syria - The Guardian