US army
Hamas, a Palestinian group, criticized US strikes in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, saying Washington had put oil on the fire in the Middle East.
“The United States bears responsibility for the consequences of this brutal aggression against both Iraq and Syria, which pours oil on the fire”, the group stated in a statement.
“We confirm that the region will not witness stability or peace except by stopping the Zionist (Israeli) aggression and the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip”, the statement reads.
In response to a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan on Sunday, the US conducted airstrikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria, promising more to follow.
The US military said it hit 85 targets across seven sites in Syria and Iraq.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported that the attacks killed at least 23 pro-Iranian fighters in Syria. The Baghdad authorities reported that they killed 16 people, including civilians.
Since mid-October, Iran-backed armed groups have assaulted US and coalition soldiers more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, enraged by the US’s support for Israel in the Gaza War.
The war began after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,160 people, the majority of whom were civilians.
In response, Israel conducted a withering air, land, and sea offensive in Gaza, killing at least 27,238 people, the majority of them women, children, and adolescents, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
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