Iraqi intelligence helps in refining the target in eastern Syria, US’s Austin

Shafaq News/ US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed on Friday the role of Iraq in the US strike in eastern Syria.

"We are very deliberative in our approach as you would expect us to be," Austin continued. "We allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence for us, and that was very helpful to us in refining the target."

 “I’m confident in the target that we went after, we know what we hit,” Austin told reporters flying with him from California to Washington.

Speaking shortly after the airstrikes, he added, “We’re confident that that target was being used by the same Shia militants that conducted the strikes,” referring to a Feb. 15 rocket attack in northern Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition personnel.

At President Joe Biden's direction, U.S. military forces launched yesterday airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed groups in Eastern Syria. These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq, and to on-going threats to those personnel, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said.

According to the press secretary, the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups including Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.

This proportionate military response was conducted along with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners.