Damascus: Syria said on Saturday (February 3) that several people died and also got injured following US strikes in the country. In a statement, the Syrian military said that the strikes on Friday killed “several civilians and soldiers, wounded others and caused significant damage to public and private property.”
“The occupation of parts of Syrian territory by US forces cannot continue,” the military said and affirmed the army’s “determination to liberate all Syrian territory from terrorism and occupation”.
According to a report by a news agency, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that at least 26 major sites housing pro-Iranian groups were destroyed in Syria, including weapons depots.
On Friday, the US launched air strikes against Iranian forces and allied militias in Iraq and Syria with President Joe Biden vowing more to come in retaliation for a deadly drone attack on an American base in Jordan last week.
The strikes, which lasted for 30 minutes, targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and “affiliated militia groups,” with American forces — including long-range bombers flown from the United States — hitting “more than 85 targets,” the US Central Command said in a statement.
“The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions,” the statement added. The targets included command and control and intelligence centres, as well as rocket, missile and drone storage facilities belonging to militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against US and coalition forces.
Earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said the strikes killed at least 18 pro-Iran fighters in Syria’s east.
General Yehia Rasool, a spokesman for Iraq’s prime minister, called the strikes a “violation” of his country’s sovereignty and said they would bring “disastrous consequences for the security and stability of Iraq and the region.”
Two Iraqi security sources told a news agency that the strikes damaged a weapons warehouse and a command centre belonging to pro-Iranian groups in western Iraq, along the Syrian border, resulting in at least some injuries.
Hours after the US strikes on Saturday, Islamic Resistance in Iraq militants (IRI) targeted the al-Harir air base hosting American forces in northern Iraq, a news agency reported citing the group.
US occupation of our territory cannot go on: Syria says number of people dead, wounded in American strikes
