TEHRAN/BEIRUT: Ira-n-ian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a stern warning on Friday against any possible attack by the United States in retaliation for a strike that killed three American troops in Jordan.

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       The warning came as Israeli strikes killed three fighters, including an official of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in Syria.

       “We have said many times that we will not be the initiator of any war, but if a country, a cruel force wants to bully, the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond firmly,” Raisi said during a visit to a Gulf naval base operated by the Revolutionary Guards.

       Iran’s “military power in the region was not and is not a threat to any country,” but a source of security that countries in the region can rely on and trust, he said as he toured the base in Bandar Abbas. “Today, the enemy has no ability to do anything against us; because they know that our forces are powerful and capable.”

       The death of the American soldiers in a drone strike at a base in Jordan on Sunday marked the first US military losses to hostile fire in the region since the Gaza conflict on October 7.

       Meanwhile, three pro-Iran fighters were killed in Israeli strikes south of Damascus on Friday, a war monitor said, with Iranian media reporting an adviser from the Revolutionary Guards was among the dead.

       The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “three members of pro-Iran groups, including an Iranian and an Iraqi” were killed in “Israeli air strikes”.

       Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2024