Syria has condemned the US air-strike on Iran-backed militias. On Friday, Syria called it a bad omen new the Biden administration.

Syria has called the strike “cowardly American aggression”. Their foreign ministry said, “It is a bad sign regarding the policies of the new US administration which should adhere to international” norms. 

The US air-strike was carried out overnight on February 26. The attack was executed at a Syria-Iraq border control point which was being used by Iran-backed militia groups. “Multiple facilities” were destroyed and is believed to be a retaliatory move to rocket attacks targeting its troops in Iraq.

“At President Biden’s direction”, the US raids targeted “infrastructure utilised by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria”, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

The location was used by Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada, two Iraqi pro-Iran groups operating under the Hashed, as per Kirby. 

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This marks the first US military action executed against such groups since President Joe Biden assumed office five weeks ago.

Washington had recently resumed negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program. 

As per a war monitor, three trucks loaded with ammunition were struck during the operation near the Syrian frontier town of Albu Kamal coming from Iraq. Approximately 22 fighters were killed in the operation. 

The raid also destroyed border posts of the Hashed, an umbrella group that includes many small militias with ties to Iran, said the monitor.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 22 fighters from the state-sponsored Hashed al-Shaabi’s paramilitary force of Iraq were killed. 

In a statement, Kataeb Hezbollah called the strike “a barbaric aggression and a heinous crime in violation of international law”. One of its fighters, Rahi al-Sharifi was killed and slammed in the strike. He was stationed at the “Iraqi-Syrian border to protect Iraq’s land and people from the gangs”

The defence ministry of Iraq has denied that the US had coordinated the strike with them, maintaining it only works with the US-led coalition in the fight against IS. 

Syria’s ally Russia also condemning the attack said, “It is very important for us to understand the United States’ strategic line on the ground.”

The US action followed three rocket attacks on facilities in Iraq used by US and coalition forces fighting IS.

One of those strikes, on a military complex in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil on February 15, killed a civilian and a foreign contractor working with coalition forces and wounded several US contractors and a soldier.

Last week, the Biden administration offered talks with Iran led by European allies as it seeks to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal, left on the brink of collapse after Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump withdrew from it.

But the new administration has also made clear it would not brook “malign activities” in the region by Iran.

Although Kataeb Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the attacks, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said it was behind them.

“We’re confident in the target we went after. We know what we hit,” he said.

“We are confident that the target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes” against US interests in Iraq, he added.

Iran is believed to be searching for an opportunity to avenge the US assassination of top general Qasem Soleimani one year ago.

Soleimani, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, was Iran’s key liaison to its allies in Iraq and Syria, and elsewhere in the region.

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He was killed in a US drone strike just as he arrived in Baghdad for meetings with top Iraqi officials.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday the US would “hold Iran responsible for the actions of its proxies that attack Americans” but would not “lash out” and risk destabilising Iraq.

Kirby also called Thursday’s strike “proportionate”.

“The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel,” he said.

“At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation.”

Nicholas Heras, of the Institute of the Study of War, said other diplomatic interests were also at play.

“The Biden administration is in the process of seeking out a way to show the Israelis that it is willing to do more against Iran and its proxy groups in the region, especially in Syria,” he said.