US President Joe Biden announced that his country's forces, according to his directives, struck facilities in Iraq and Syria - Friday - in response to targeting American bases in the region, while Baghdad denounced the strikes as a violation of sovereignty, warning of their repercussions on regional stability, which was also expressed by Iranian sources.

Biden said that the targeted facilities are being used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its affiliated militias to attack American forces, adding that “our response that began today will continue at the times and places we choose,” following the attack that took place in Jordan last Sunday, which resulted in the killing of 3 American soldiers.

The American President - who participated on Friday in the ceremony to receive the bodies of the three soldiers - stressed that his country "does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world," but he continued, saying, "Let everyone who might seek to harm us know that we will respond."

American forces in the Middle East are facing escalating attacks with missiles and drones against the backdrop of their support for Israel in its war on Gaza.

The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) has counted more than 150 attacks on its forces since last October, but the Jordan attack is the first targeting that resulted in the death of American soldiers since the start of the war.

For its part, the White House said that the strikes carried out on Friday targeted 3 facilities in Iraq and 4 in Syria, stressing that "the American response began tonight and will not end tonight."

He continued, saying, "We do not seek conflict with Iran or in the Middle East, but we will not hesitate to defend our forces."

The White House stated that Washington had informed the Iraqi side in advance of these strikes, but it had not communicated with Iran since the recent attack targeting American forces in Jordan.

"A violation of Iraq's sovereignty"

For his part, Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, said that the American strikes are a violation of sovereignty and undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, which seeks to ensure the stability of the region, as he put it.

Rasoul added that these strikes “threaten to drag Iraq and the region into undesirable consequences,” and that their consequences will be “dire” for security and stability.

He pointed out that American aircraft targeted sites in Al-Qaim district and other border areas.

Iraqi security sources reported that 3 soldiers and 2 civilians were killed and 15 people were injured as a result of the American bombing on the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces in western Iraq.

The American network NBC also quoted an Iraqi security official as saying that the raids targeted a weapons store and three homes of members of the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades in Anbar Governorate, west of the country.

On the other hand, Iranian sources told Al Jazeera that the American strikes are an open and declared aggression against Syria and Iraq and strike regional stability, as they put it.

The same sources confirmed that there are no bases for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or the Quds Force in the areas that were bombed, and that Washington’s talk about targeting the Quds Force in Syria is “unrealistic and a rubbish in the eyes.”

Iran has repeatedly warned the United States that the continuation of the Israeli massacres in Gaza will lead to an expansion of the scope of the war regionally, while Washington confirms that it does not seek to expand the conflict, but it continues to supply Tel Aviv with thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition via an air bridge in support of what it calls “Israel’s right.” In self-defense.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies