'Just The Beginning': US Vows 'Further Action' In Middle East After Retaliatory Strikes On Houthis In Iraq, Syria

(MENAFN- Live Mint) "The United States has said this is“just the beginning” after a punishing weekend of airstrikes in Iran amid an escalating Middle East conflict. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on CBS's Face the Nation that the strikes on Friday night against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, designed as retaliation for the killing of three US soldiers,“were the beginning, not the end of our response\"\"There will be more steps, some seen, some perhaps unseen, all in an effort to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, we will respond and we will respond forcefully”, Sullivan added.
“I would just say that the president (Joe Biden) was clear when he ordered them and when he conducted them that that was the beginning of our response and there will be more steps to come,” Sullivan told CNN's Dana Bash on“State of the Union.”US carried out major strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria. US forces also carried out further strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen this weekend.
The Houthis, who have said their attacks on global shipping are in response to Israel's war in Gaza, vowed the latest strikes will not go unanswered his interviews, Jake Sullivan vehemently rejected a chance to rule out strikes on Iran itself, which would be a major escalation that the US has so far been determined to avoid Sullivan said the Houthis' activities and the attack on US forces are \"distinct but related challenges\" that both point back to Iran has adopted a“multi-tiered” response to the drone attack that killed three US soldiers and wounded more than 40 others last week. The attack brought the worst loss of US military life in the region in nearly three years and the first US military fatalities since the war in Gaza erupted UN Security Council prepares to debate the US strikes in Iraq and Syria, Iraqi government, many close to Iran, demanded an end to the presence of US troops in their country, claiming Washington was taking the region to“the edge of an abyss”.
Notably, US and UK's assault on Iraq and Syria was supported by six other countries, including Canada, the Netherlands and Bahrain. However, this third war front, after the Israel-Gaza war, and a second sporadic missile exchange on commercial trade route on Red Sea, US seems to be diving face forward in an escalation of the conflict in West Asia, also popularly known as“Middle East”, that Washington has desperately tried to avoid, while also providing arms to Israel have vowed that they would continue attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea in support of Palestinians in Gaza. However, Tehran has repeatedly said it does not seek conflict. On Friday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said his country will not initiate a war but will“respond strongly.”On Friday, the US hit 85 targets across seven locations in Iraq and Syria, a significant escalation in tensions between the US and Iran-backed groups attacking American bases across the region in protest of Israel's war in Gaza US strikes killed at least 16 people in Iraq, including civilians, and injured 25 others, the Iraqi government had said Friday. The attacks hit areas close to the border with Syria and targeted facilities used by Iranian-linked al Hashd al Shabi - or Popular Mobilization Units - in the Iraqi city of Al-Qaim, Iraqi officials said next day, the US and UK conducted strikes on at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen from air and surface platforms, including fighter jets, with the support of several other countries.(Mint could not independently verify the numbers put on war damage)

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