Cairo, 3 February 2024 (dpa/MIA) – At least 34 people, including Iranian-backed militia fighters, were killed in US overnight airstrikes in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, a war monitor and government sources said on Saturday.

The Iraqi government said the “blatant aggression” had killed 16 people including civilians, and injured 25 others.

Baghdad also denied it had coordinated with the United States on the strikes, and warned the attack would push the security situation to the “brink of the abyss” in Iraq and the region.

“The US side intentionally engaged in deception and distortion of facts, stating coordination with Iraqi authorities for the perpetration of this aggression — an unfounded claim crafted to mislead international public opinion and evade legal responsibility for this condemned act,” an Iraqi government spokesman said in a statement.

Iraq said it will summon the US chargé d'affaires in Baghdad to hand him an official protest note over the strikes.

"These adventurous attacks will only lead to more tension and instability in the region," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Saturday.

He accused the US of trying to cover up Israeli war crimes in Gaza. This was a "strategic miscalculation" by the US administration and would only draw Washington further into the conflict between Israel and Palestine," the spokesman said, according to a statement on the Iranian Foreign Ministry's website.

The US military said on Friday it had attacked more than 85 targets in Syria and Iraq, in response to the deadly attack by pro-Iranian militias that killed three US soldiers in Jordan last week.

The strikes left at least 23 members of the Iranian-backed militias dead in Syria, according to a war monitor.

A cautious calm was on Saturday prevailing in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.

The watchdog, which has been documenting violence in Syria since 2011, said the strikes had hit 27 sites in Syria’s eastern province of Deir al-Zour and near the border with Iraq, prompting the pro-Iranian militias in the area to reposition themselves and vacate several posts for fear of further bombardment.

Syria said the “US aggression” left an unspecified number of civilians and military dead, and caused heavy material damage.

Syria’s state news agency SANA, citing the Defence Ministry, reported that the area, targeted by the US strikes, is where the Syrian army fights Islamic State militants.

“This aggression has no justification other than attempting to weaken the capabilities of the Syrian Arab army and its allies in fighting terrorism,” the ministry said in a statement, according to SANA.

On January 28, three US soldiers were killed in a drone attack by pro-Iranian militias in Jordan near the Syrian border.

Numerous other soldiers were injured. US President Joe Biden blamed "radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq" for the attack and threatened to retaliate.

The security situation in the Middle East is tense due to the war in Gaza amid growing fears of a wider regional conflict.

Since the start of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in October, pro-Iranian militias have carried out almost daily attacks on US military bases in Iraq and Syria. The US responded with airstrikes in both countries.

Photo: EPA