Photo: Peter Kovalev/TASS
BRUSSELS, Feb 3 /TASS/. The European Union assesses the situation in the Middle East as critical following the US strikes in Syria and Iraq, fears it is spiralling out of control and calls for de-escalation, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on arrival at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers.
"We have said over and over again that the Middle East is a cauldron that can explode," Borrell told reporters. "We urge everyone to try to avoid escalation. We are living in a critical situation in the Middle East, in the whole region," he stressed. The Union's top diplomat warned that he did not know the positions of EU ministers and did not expect any concrete decisions on Saturday, as the meeting in Brussels was informal.
The US has launched four series of strikes on the positions of pro-Iranian militias deployed in the Syrian province of Dayr az-Zaur. Paramilitary groups' installations in the desert area of Mayadin and east of the town of Abu Kamal on the border with Iraq were bombed. The US Air Force also struck pro-Iranian armed group positions near the village of Al-Qa'im in western Iraq, close to the border with Syria. US Central Command said the airstrikes, which hit more than 85 targets, targeted Quds Force units of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, an elite unit of Iran's armed forces) and related groups.
The Al Hadath television channel reported that at least 18 members of pro-Iranian armed groups were killed when the US air force bombed their positions in eastern Syria. The TV channel said at least six people were killed in Iraq as a result of the US strikes. All those killed in Iraq were members of Shiite militias.
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