Hamas, a militant Palestinian organization, denounced the US strikes carried out over night in Syria and Iraq on Saturday, claiming that Washington had “thrown gasoline on the fire” in the Middle East.
The group released a statement saying that the US “bears full responsibility for the repercussions of this aggressive attack on Iraq and Syria.”
“Those who pour oil on the fire, we assure you that the region will not find stability, nor peace until the Zionist (Israeli) aggression, genocidal crimes and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip ceases.”
The United States launched air strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria, with President Joe Biden vowing more to come, in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan on Sunday.
According to the US military, it targeted 85 targets in all across seven locations in Iraq and Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, the strikes claimed the lives of at least 23 pro-Iranian fighters in Syria. 16 individuals were murdered in Iraq, including civilians, according to the Baghdad administration.
Since mid-October, armed organizations backed by Iran have launched over 165 attacks against US and coalition forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. The attacks are a result of the groups’ resentment over the US’s support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
According to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, more than 1,160 persons in Israel lost their lives as a result of Hamas’s attack on October 7. These deaths were largely civilians. This attack precipitated the start of the conflict.
In response Israel launched a blistering air, land and sea offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 27,238 people, most of them women, children and adolescents, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
