US strikes Iranian targets in Syria after drones attack US troop base in Iraq

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Oct 27, 2023: As the Israel-Hamas war continues to escalate, the US military on Thursday (US local time) carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs, the Pentagon said, in response to a spate of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria. Earlier, the Israeli military said its troops and tanks briefly entered northern Gaza to prepare for a full-scale incursion. More than 20 days into war with Israel, Hamas on Thursday told The Associated Press that it needs greater intervention from its allies, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

 

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry also said more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed so far — more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids following Hamas’s surprise rampage on October 7 in southern Israel.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

1. On Friday, officials told news agency Reuters that the United States has carried out strikes in Syria, following attacks on its troops in the past week. The Pentagon said the strikes were ordered by US President Joe Biden. Further, the Pentagon said it will "not tolerate attacks against personnel and will defend its interests. The US will take additional measures if attacks by Iran’s proxies continue."

The development comes after two suicide drones, targeted by an Iranian-backed group, on Thursday, attacked a base housing US troops in northern Iraq. In a statement, The Islamic Resistance, an umbrella group for several Iran-backed groups, said that it attacked the "American occupation base" near the airport of the city of Irbil with two drones that directly hit their targets.

Even in the past week, several dozen attacks on US military facilities in Iraq and Syria were witnessed. Most were claimed by the same group, which has said it is retaliating against US backing of Israel in its war with Hamas.

2. In a rare message sent to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Biden has warned Tehran against targeting US personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region.

"There was a direct message relayed," White House spokesman John Kirby was heard speaking at a news briefing.

Earlier on Wednesday, Biden said he had warned Ayatollah the United States would respond if US forces continued to be targeted but did not say how the message was communicated.

3. At the United Nations, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Thursday warned that if Israel’s retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip doesn’t end, then the United States will "not be spared from this fire."

"I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome (an)expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire," he told a meeting of the 193-member General Assembly on the Middle East.

4. At least six people were injured after a missile struck a medical facility in an Egyptian Red Sea resort town near the Israeli border early on Friday. Israel’s military said it was aware of a security incident in the area, Egypt’s Al Qahera News reported.

Further, citing sources, Al Qahera reported the blast in the town of Taba was related to fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas terrorists and struck a Taba ambulance facility and a residential building for the administration of the Taba Hospital. This week, Israel said a rocket claimed by Hamas hit an area outlying Eilat, opposite Taba on the Israeli side of the border.

5. On Thursday, Israeli troops and tanks briefly raided northern Gaza overnight, engaging with Hamas terrorists and targeting anti-tank weapons in order to "prepare the battlefield" before an expected ground invasion. This was the third Israeli raid since the war began. Israeli army radio said the military had overnight staged its biggest incursion into northern Gaza of the war.

Palestinians said Israeli air strikes pounded the territory again overnight and people in central Gaza reported intensive tank shelling all night. Meanwhile, in a joint plea, Arab leaders urged for a ceasefire to end civilian suffering and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

6. The Israeli military has said its fighter jets struck three senior Hamas terrorists in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The operatives were considered the most significant brigade of the Hamas terrorist organisation, the Israeli Defense Forces said.

Earlier, the deputy head of Hamas’s intelligence, Shadi Barud, was also killed in a strike in the Gaza Strip. Israel accused Barud of planning the October 7 attacks with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The Israel Defense Forces said that fighter jets had struck Shadi Barud based on "precise intelligence".

7. The Pentagon on Thursday said nearly 900 more of US troops arrived in the Middle East or were heading there to bolster air defenses for US personnel amid a surge in attacks by Iran-affiliated groups. Since October 7, the day the war began, the United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region, including two aircraft carriers, to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups. The number of troops added to the region is in the thousands.

8. Israel’s government advisories have said the country will provide compensation for ships that are damaged due to the war in Gaza and that the government was taking steps to minimise risks for vessels using the country’s ports. In a Thursday statement, Israel’s tax authority said that a compensation would be awarded for "war damage" caused to any Israeli or foreign vessel located within Israel’s economic waters. The authority said the rate of the compensation was 100 per cent of the "actual damage", which is the difference in value of the asset prior to the incident and after it was damaged.

"War damage is defined under the law as damage that is caused to the body of an asset due to acts of war by the regular forces of an enemy or due to other acts of hostility against Israel, or due to acts of war by the Israel Defense Forces," the statement said.

9. Israel’s El Al Airlines ELAL.TA on Thursday said it was suspending flight services to Mumbai and Delhi indefinitely and was terminating some seasonal routes earlier than planned due to the country’s war with Hamas terrorists and waning demand. Israel’s flag carrier said it would cancel seasonal service to Dublin, Marseille and Tokyo on October 31. Those routes were due to terminate in the October-November period, it said.

The airline said it is still operating regular flights to destinations including New York, Bangkok, Madrid and Athens, and that it has flown more than 350,000 passengers since Hamas’s assault in southern Israel on October 7.

10. Almost 50 hostages were killed in Israeli strikes so far in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas terrorist group has claimed. According to a report with news agency AFP, the group’s armed unit, Al-Qassam Brigades, made the claim after Israel conducted a "targeted raid" overnight that the military said destroyed many sites before pulling out.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Al-Qassam Brigades claimed that the "number of Zionist prisoners" killed in Gaza due to "Zionist strikes and massacres" has reached almost 50.

Courtesy: India Today