Iran Denies Links to Groups the US Bombed in Syria

 

Reports from monitoring groups say between six and ten people were killed in the US airstrikes

by Dave DeCamp 

Posted onAugust 24, 2022CategoriesNewsTagsIran

Iran on Wednesday denied that it had any links to the groups that the US targeted in airstrikes in Syria, contradicting a claim made by the US military.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced late Tuesday that it targeted facilities in Syria used by groups “affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)” in Deir ez-Zor, Syria.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani denied that Tehran had any involvement with the groups that were targeted and denounced the US bombing as “against the people and infrastructure of Syria.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an opposition war monitor based in Britain, the strikes targeted facilities used by a group known as Fatimiyoun, a militia made up of mostly Shia fighters from Afghanistan.

The SOHR said that the strikes killed at least six Syrian and foreign militants were killed in the US strikes. Deir Ezzor 24, another monitoring group, said at least 10 people were killed in the bombings.

CENTCOM said the strikes were in response to an August 15th drone strike on the US base at al-Tanf in Syria but offered no evidence to show the group that was targeted was behind the drone attack. The command said that President Biden personally ordered the strikes and claimed they were carried out in “self-defense,” citing Article II of the Constitution as justification.

But the US can’t justify the strikes as self-defense since it illegally occupies eastern Syria. The Syrian government is against the US presence in the country and frequently calls for Washington to withdraw. On top of the military occupation, the US also maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria that aim to impede the country’s reconstruction.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/08/24/iran-denies-links-to-groups-the-us-bombed-in-syria/