Pentagon stands back: "We did not use Iraqi information in the US Strike"

Shafaq News/ Pentagon spokesperson said on Saturday that his country did not use Iraqi information to detect the airstrike targets in Syria lately.

Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, John Kirby, tweeted, “The Iraqi government is investigating who launched rockets on its soil in recent days and weeks.” He added, “But to be clear: we did not use Iraqi information to develop our targets for last night’s strikes.”

Iraqi Ministry of Defense denied, on Friday, the exchange of information with the US before the military attack on Shiite armed factions in Syria.

US airforces targeted Iraqi Iranian-backed factions in the east of the country on Thursday after Iran’s missile attacks on US targets in Iraq.

The air strikes targeted faction sites on the Syrian side of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, where groups backed by Iran control an important crossing for weapons, personnel and goods. Local sources and a medical source in eastern Syria told Reuters that at least 17 people had been killed, but gave no further details. That toll could not be confirmed.

The Pentagon said it had preliminary information about casualties, but did not provide any further details.

Western officials and some Iraqi officials accuse Iranian-backed groups of involvement in deadly rocket attacks on US sites and personnel in Iraq over the last month.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the air strikes in Syria were meant to send the message that Biden will always act to protect Americans.

Future US actions in the region will be deliberative and will aim to deescalate tensions in Syria, Psaki said.

It was not clear how, or whether, the US strikes might affect efforts to coax Iran back into negotiations about both sides resuming compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.