The Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday (3/1) condemned the United States (US) attacks in Iraq and Syria. They said Washington had poured “oil on the fire” in the Middle East.
The US “takes full responsibility for the impact of aggressive attacks on Iraq and Syria,” the group said in a statement.
“Those who pour oil on the fire, we guarantee that this region will not find stability, or peace until Zionist (Israeli) aggression, crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip stop.”
The US launches airstrikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria. President Joe Biden has vowed to carry out more strikes, in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three US soldiers in Jordan on Sunday.
The US military said it struck a total of 85 targets in seven different locations in Syria and Iraq.
The strikes killed at least 23 pro-Iran fighters in Syria, war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In Iraq, the attacks killed 16 people, including civilians, the Baghdad government said.
US and allied forces have been attacked more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since mid-October by Iranian-backed armed groups. The group is angry about US support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel launched air, land and sea attacks on Gaza that killed at least 27,238 people, the majority of them women, children and teenagers, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-run territory. (Ah)