President Joe Biden and his administration tried to sound tough on Friday after the U.S. Military carried out a series of strikes inside Syria and Iraq in retaliation for Iranian-backed terrorists killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding dozens more in a suicide drone attack last weekend.
The strikes came after the Biden administration repeatedly telegraphed to Iran, through leaks to the media, what its plans were for the strikes so that Iran could have their top personnel from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — a designated terrorist group — safely evacuate ahead of the U.S. response.
“This afternoon, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack U.S. forces,” Biden said. “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing. The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that Biden ordered him to “hold the IRGC and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on U.S. and Coalition Forces.”
“We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, but the president and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces,” he said. “We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our forces, and our interests.”
Voice of America News reported that a U.S. official said that the goal of the strike was to cause “a major disruption in logistics” for the IRGC and the terrorist groups that it backs.
The targets selected were “critical to their supply chain” the official said, adding that the strikes were not intended to target “personnel.”
“We hit what we intended to hit,” the official said.
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