ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Pentagon on Monday reiterated that it only targeted facilities used by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, in recent strikes in Iraq.
“I think we have been very clear in terms of what we targeted and these were facilities that have been used or are being used by the IRGC and affiliated militias to attack the US forces,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a press briefing in Washington DC.
Washington on Friday night launched a major retaliation campaign against the IRGC’s Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, striking more than 85 targets and killing at least 16 Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters and injuring another 36 in Iraq’s western Anbar province, near the Syrian border.
The US airstrikes were carried out in retaliation for more than 165 rocket and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan by Iran-aligned militia groups condemning Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip, since mid-October. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the IRGC, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. The most recent drone strike, which resulted in three American soldiers being killed, took place at a military base in Jordan late last month.
Iraq condemned the US strikes and the foreign ministry announced in a statement the summoning of the charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Baghdad “in protest against the American aggression that targeted Iraqi military and civilian sites.”
Despite Iraq’s claims of civilian sites being targeted in the attack, Ryder reiterated that the US targeted “commanding control operation centers, intelligence centers rockets missiles unmanned aerial vehicles storages and logistics ammunition supply chain facilities.”
“Our focus here is on attacking capability that have been used by these [Iran-backed] groups,” he said.
Ryder also said that the focus of the US strikes were the Iran-backed groups, and not the PMF.
In a letter to Congress on Sunday, US President Joe Biden said he ordered the strikes to “deter the IRGC and affiliated militia groups” from conducting attacks on US personnel and facilities.
The strikes “have been conducted in a manner designed to limit the risk of escalation and avoid civilian casualties,” he said, adding that he “will direct additional measures, including against the IRGC and IRGC-affiliated personnel and facilities, as appropriate.”
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Washington had “informed” Baghdad “prior” to carrying out the attacks, an assertion denied by Iraqi government spokesperson Basim al-Awadi.
US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel contradicted Kirby’s statement, clarifying that Iraqi officials were informed of the attack immediately following the strikes.
“Iraq, like every country in the region, understood that there would be a response after the deaths of our soldiers. As for this specific response on Friday, there was not a pre-notification. We informed the Iraqis immediately after the strikes occurred,” Patel told Rudaw.
