Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images News / Getty Images
The United States has begun retaliatory air strikes against Iranian backed proxy groups in Syria and Iraq.
CENTCOM confirmed the strikes on social media, posting:
“At 4:00 p.m. (EST) Feb. 02, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. U.S. military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States. The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions. The facilities that were struck included command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces.”
The strikes come hours after the bodies of the three American soldiers killed in a drone attack by an Iranian backed proxy group last weekend returned home.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden took part in the dignified transfer of the remains of those three soldiers.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined the Bidens for the transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
The Bidens met privately with the families before the dignified transfer. President Biden did not speak during the ceremony.
The fallen troops were Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46; Spc. Kennedy Landon Sanders, 24; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, all of whom were from Georgia. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant.