Groups hit by strikes ‘100% dependent’ on Iran: Former ambassador
- US strikes 85 targets in retaliation for fatal drone attack in Jordan
- Locations included command and control HQ, intelligence centers
- President warned strikes would continue in 'tiered' response
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(NewsNation) — Kurt Volker, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said the militant groups in Iraq and Syria hit by United States’ retaliatory strikes are “100% dependent on Iran” for funding and equipment.
The U.S. struck more than 85 targets across Syria and Iraq, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites and other facilities that were connected to militias or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
The strikes are a response to a drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan that killed three troops last week.
Biden and other top U.S. leaders had been warning for days that America would strike back at the militias, and they made it clear it wouldn’t be just one hit but a “tiered response” over time.
Iran-backed militias in the Middle East have been attacking U.S. assets in the region since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched an assault on Israel and killed more than 1,200 people. It triggered an Israeli ground and air bombardment and then the invasion of Gaza, where more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have been targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea since then, as well.
NewsNation’s Tyler Wornell contributed to this report.
