The US says it may bomb more Middle East targets. One militia says it doesn’t want a wider fight.

BAGHDAD (AP) – An Iraqi militia official has hinted at a desire to deescalate tensions in the Middle East following retaliatory strikes launched by the United States against dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, in an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad condemned the U.S. strikes.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden greet service members before boarding Air Force One after attending a casualty return for Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Ga., Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Ga., and Sgt. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga., at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. The three were killed in a drone attack in Jordan on Jan. 28. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

But he then struck a more conciliatory tone, saying that “we do not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions.”

Iraq’s foreign ministry announced Saturday it would summon the U.S. embassy’s chargé d’affaires to deliver a formal protest over U.S. strikes on “Iraqi military and civilian sites.”

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