The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they unfold.
US strikes in Iraq, Syria took 30 minutes, were ‘successful,’ says White House
American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday took place over 30 minutes and were apparently successful, the White House says.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby tells journalists that aircraft including B-1 bombers launched from the United States took part, carrying more than 125 precision-guided munitions.
He says “there will be additional responses that we will take.”
The strikes were in response to last week’s deadly drone strike against US troops in Jordan, killing three US soldiers, in an attack blamed on an Iran-backed terror group in Iraq.
“We are not looking for a war with Iran,” Kirby says, adding that there has been “no communications” with Iran since the attack last weekend.
Baghdad says US strikes hit border areas, condemns ‘violation of Iraqi sovereignty’
US air strikes were launched at Iraqi border areas, the Iraqi military says, warning that the attacks could ignite instability in the region.
“These airstrikes constitute a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, and pose a threat that could lead Iraq and the region into dire consequences,” Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasool says in a statement.
Biden: US strikes to ‘continue at times and places of our choosing’
US President Joe Biden says the US response to the drone attack last weekend in Jordan that killed 3 US soldiers “will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
The US began carrying out strikes in Iraq and Syria a short time ago, almost a week after the deadly attack blamed on an Iran-backed militia group.
In his statement, Biden says the US “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.”