Attacks in Iraq, Syria spark regional outrage
BAGHDAD/DAMASCUS — US strikes on both Iraq and Syria sparked a wave of anger and condemnation, and posed a significant threat to peace in an already volatile Middle East, and are likely to exacerbate tensions in the region, experts say.
As many as 23 fighters, including nine Syrians, were killed in US attacks on Iranian strongholds in Syria’s eastern province of Deir al-Zour on Friday night and into Saturday morning, while at least 16 people, including civilians, were killed by US airstrikes on the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces in Iraq.
“Will these militias actually stand down and stop their attacks on American infrastructure? The answer is most likely no,” Allison McManus of the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, told Agence France-Presse.
But, she added, these strikes mark “a significant change, and we could say a significant escalation in response to the lethal attack on US service members” and so “should not be understated”.
Baghdad and Damascus on Saturday denounced the strikes, while Moscow called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council, which diplomatic sources said would take place Monday afternoon, AFP reported.
The United States and Britain launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday, in the second day of major US operations against militant groups following a deadly attack on US troops last weekend.
Yemen’s Houthi militia on Sunday morning said it will launch retaliatory attacks.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Saturday condemned the US strikes on targets in Syria and Iraq.
Kanaani said the US attacks against Iraq, Syria and Yemen only safeguarded Israel’s objectives, adding such strikes would mire the US government in the region more than before.
Experts say the attacks, purportedly a response to the drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan on Jan 28, signify growing tensions arising from the Gaza conflict.
Since mid-October, more than 165 drones and rockets have been fired at US forces in Iraq and Syria.
Osama Danura, a political expert based in the Syrian capital Damascus, said the attacks are consistent with a pattern of conduct that the US has adopted.
Instead of addressing the Gaza conflict diplomatically and politically, the US has escalated the conflict through hostility, endangering peace in the already volatile Middle East, he said, adding such actions undermine international peace by prolonging the confrontation in the region and beyond.
“The latest escalation only worsens the situation,” Danura noted, adding the US attacks are giving opponents of American forces in Syria more motivation to resist and drive out the occupying forces.
Muhammad al-Omari, another Damascus-based Syrian political analyst, said the US attacks were evidence that Washington was attempting to use force to destroy a threat or undesired group.
The US seeks to entangle Iraq in internal political conflicts, sowing seeds of discord and chaos in the country, which is yet to recover from the 2003 invasion by the US-led coalition, he said.