What he heard was that 500 500 500 bombs had hit a compound near the border. According to the Pentagon, the complex was used by Iranian-affiliated Iraqi militants Kattaib Hezbollah and Kattaib Saeed al-Shuhada.
Satellite images released by space technology company Maxer Technologies clearly show the devastation caused by round-trip bombs.
The “front” image is about a third of a kilometer (about 370 yards) from the Iraqi border, with a dozen buildings of various sizes. In the “rear” image, almost all the buildings were destroyed, and the surrounding premises and surrounding land by the shelling.
It is unclear how many militants died. Gaddafi’s Hezbollah has only recognized one death, without specifying where he died on the Iraq-Syria border. One US official said “only a few” died, while other reports put the death toll between 17 and 22.
The Pentagon says the attack is aimed at the United States’ response to recent rocket and mortar attacks on US and allied positions in Iraq. On February 15, a rocket crashed into the grounds of the Erbil International Airport and a residential area of the city, killing several US workers and a contractor and wounding Iraqi civilians. Baghdad’s Green Zone, where the US embassy is located, has been a regular target of engine and rocket fires. Gatab Hezbollah has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks, and did so again in a statement issued on Friday.
Pentagon officials told CNN that the attack was not related to the attack, but that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “believed” that US and coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted by rocket attacks and used by the militants themselves. .
–
–
Two of the countless militant groups that gained prominence during the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the two armed groups Qatayib Hezbollah and Qatayeb Saeed al-Shuhada, are filling the void left by the Iraqi military. He was in full retreat.
I spent a lot of time in 2015 and 2016 with some of the militants on the way north from Baghdad. Some were well organized and disciplined, while others were serious and unstable.
Its commanders were never ashamed of the support they received from Iran.
“Yes, we are announcing to the world that we have Iranian advisers,” Hadi al-Amari, senior commander of the pro-Iraqi Badr forces in Iran, told me outside the city of Tikrit in 2015, and then on the front line under ISIS control. “We are proud of them and we thank them very much for joining us.”
Nearby, I ran into a war-exhausted Iranian who told me he was a volunteer in broken Arabic.
A militant commander told me at the time: “It is better to have four Iranian advisers in the front row than 400 American advisers sitting in Baghdad’s Green Zone.”
––
–
Since then, Iraqi militants with Iranian support have grown even more powerful, while relations between Washington and Tehran have deteriorated dramatically.
The United States is now in a situation where it makes it clear that it will not tolerate attacks by pro-Iranian militants on its positions in Iraq, but at the same time wants to reopen dialogue with Iran. Sending that message without burning the bridges they are trying to build to Tehran is not an easy task.
Friday’s attack was the first known military operation to the Biden administration, the seventh in a series of US military operations in the Middle East.
Administrations are coming to Washington. Administrations go to Washington. However, some things never change.
–
–
Devout coffee expert. Lifelong travel enthusiast. Player. Organizer. Twitter addict. Defender of the web. Certified Bacon Nerd
—
–
