The White House on Monday said Iran was in some cases “actively facilitating” rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria, and President Biden has directed the Department of Defense to brace for more and respond appropriately.

White House spokesman John Kirby said there had been an uptick in such attacks over the last week, and especially over the last few days, but the U.S. would not allow its interests in the region to “go unchallenged.”

He said the United States believed these groups were supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the Iranian government, which was also continuing to support the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

  • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Can we just not turn this into world war 3?

    Please?

    What’s even the point? Just trade with your neighbors and don’t fight with them.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      There is a strong likelihood that Iran was behind Hamas’ attack on 7 October, so it’s not like the US are the ones escalating here.

      • Mrkawfee@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        There is a strong likelihood that Israeli intelligence turned a blind eye to the 7 October attack to bury opposition to Netanyahu.

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          There is some likelihood, however it shouldn’t be understated how well Hamas were prepared. They blew up cell towers in the area using small drones, which was a single point of failure in the early warning system, and sniped the Israeli guards in their towers. Israel was also distracted by an attack in the West Bank immediately prior, and many in the air force had been on strike over Netanyahu’s actions with reservists stating they would refuse to answer if called up. Many of the active forces were on holiday, so everything was left with a skeleton crew.

          Equally, Hamas’ preparations were known about well in advance - they trained attacking mock Israeli villages in Gaza, right in sight of Israel. It was also the 50th anniversary of the last time Palestinians attacked Israel on the Yom Kippur holiday. The fact that there wasn’t heightened security is absolutely a failure on Netanyahu’s part.

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, we could do that.

      Unfortunately domestic policy spills over into international, and we no longer just throw stones to get our way.

      China wants to restore its glory and never be fucked over again, USA wants to keep itself at the top of the world, Philippines and Taiwan want their space, Middle East has a culture and religion that needs to be expressed against us heretics… especially after being fucked over for decades, North Korea has small dick syndrome (leader, not its people) and countries that were colonial are trying to find their feet in a hostile world.

      Not sure what Europe is up to.

      • TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Europe is over there debating on spending 2% GDP on their military currently as the entire rest of the world is preparing for major potential conflict escalation.

      • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Not sure what Europe is up to.

        Shitting their collective pants now that Russia has their sights on them.

        • flying_monkies@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          Please show me where any country is “shitting themselves over Russia” after the master stroke in self destruction Russia has displayed in Ukraine?

        • avater@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          😂 the three days to kyiv russia is a reason to shit our pants? I don’t think so…

          • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 months ago

            You certainly seem to be shitting your pants anytime anyone mentions the US backing off aiding Ukraine under Trump.

            • avater@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I dont get the same impression here in germany. And I also dont see that Trump will be a problem ever again. So nope, no shitting our pants here because of Russia or Trump.

        • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          LMAOOOOOOOOO.

          Russia isn’t even the strongest military in Ukraine. Nobody is shitting their pants over Russia after their comical display of total failure and incompetence in Ukraine. It’s not 2011 anymore, the tiger mask has fallen off to reveal the sick, weak little kitten that is Russia.

  • robocall@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Maybe the US can give them some of their money back for every month they don’t attack our bases.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The White House on Monday said Iran was in some cases “actively facilitating” rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria, and President Biden has directed the Department of Defense to brace for more and respond appropriately.

    White House spokesman John Kirby said there had been an uptick in such attacks over the last week, and especially over the last few days, but the U.S. would not allow its interests in the region to “go unchallenged.”

    He said the United States believed these groups were supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the Iranian government, which was also continuing to support the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

    “We are deeply concerned about the potential for any significant escalation of these attacks in the days ahead,” Kirby said.

    Biden has sent naval power to the Middle East in the past two weeks, including two aircraft carriers, other warships and about 2,000 Marines.

    “We know Iran’s goal is to maintain some level of deniability here, but we’re not going to allow them to do that,” Kirby said.


    The original article contains 275 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 31%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • febra@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Why does the US have military bases in Syria? I thought Syria wasn’t a US ally

    • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      Definitely not an ally. They actually supported forces opposing the Syrian government in their recent civil war. They currently have a presence in primarily southern Syria near the Iraq border to help counter Islamic state (who at one point conquered much of Syria and Iraq, leading to Iraq needing assistance from the US in pushing them back). They probably enjoy having a presence putting them in between Iran and some of the Iranian backed groups like hezbollah out farther west too.

      • febra@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        So they’re not allies but have a presence in Syria. Is Syria okay with this? Like, the sialmic state seems to be a problem for Syria. Has Syria asked for help?

        • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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          8 months ago

          Oh no, Syria, assuming you mean Bashir Al Assad’s government, absolutely does not want the US there. He’s not exactly a great guy though whatever your feelings on the US. They don’t control the entire country though. There are other Syrian opposition forces that control some parts of the country. The US has generally supported the Syrian opposition forces and the Kurds. Islamic state no longer controls large swathes of the country after multiple international forces including the US, turkey, and Russia intervened, but they are still active in the area. The US presence now is smaller and mostly near the border with Iraq in the south east of the country. It’s a pretty complicated situation.

    • Land_Strider@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Why does U.S. has interests in the region and it is put into words like it is a normal thing? Is this still about the “we were intending to beat that Nazi guy 80 years ago before the Soviets did it before us, so we gotta still act up like we are the global police” thing or is it “some plane hit our towers 20 years ago so we gotta exact tenfolds of body count and untold amount of oil from the region” kinda interests?

    • grte@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Who knew John Bolton was into federated social media.

      • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        Don’t bash my Bolton. He may be a warmongering chickenhawk piece of shit, but at least he’s one of the more enjoyable NatSec ghouls to watch and listen.

        Have you heard Mike Pompeo speak? JFC.