WASHINGTON — The United States will continue its retaliatory actions against armed groups backed by Tehran in Iraq and Syria, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.
Although the official refused to say whether he ruled out attacks against Iran itself.
“We intend to conduct additional strikes and actions to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked,” Sullivan told NBC News on Sunday.
The United States and its traditional ally the United Kingdom attacked dozens of targets in Yemen on Saturday in response to repeated attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Those strikes came the day after a separate wave of unilateral US strikes against linked targets in Iraq and Syria carried out in response to the killing of three US soldiers at a base in Jordan on January 28.
“That’s not the end,” Sullivan emphasized.
Furthermore, the senior official declared to the ABC network that the attacks have had a “good effect”, since they managed to “reduce” and “degrade” the capacity of said groups to carry out new attacks.
The Houthis began attacking cargo ships transiting the Red Sea in November, claiming they were attacking vessels linked to Israel in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel’s operations in its conflict. with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Source: With information from AFP
