President Biden ordered airstrikes on buildings in Syria that the Pentagon said were used by Iranian-backed militias, in retaliation for rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq.
The Feb. 15 airstrike was the first military action undertaken by the Biden administration. The decision to attack Syria did not appear to signal an intention to widen U.S. military involvement in the region but rather to demonstrate a will to defend U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group that monitors the war in Syria, said the strikes targeted a shipment of weapons that were being taken by trucks entering Syrian territories from Iraq. The group mainly made up of Shiite paramilitaries, were killed.
U.S. officials said the strikes were a relatively small, carefully calibrated military response: seven, 500-pound, bombs were dropped on a small cluster of buildings at an unofficial crossing at the Syria-Iraq border.
The American airstrikes on Thursday “specifically destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militia troops, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada,” John F. Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, said.
“This proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners,” Kirby said. “The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel.”
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia criticized the Biden administration for the strikes in a statement saying, “Offensive military action without congressional approval is not constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances.”
The White House’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, responded to Kaine’s comments saying, “The Department of Defense briefed Congressional leadership before the action last night. The Administration has been briefing the Hill at the Member- and staff-level today. There will be a full classified briefing early next week at the latest.”
The Biden administration condemned the Feb. 15 rocket attack near the city of Irbil in Iraq’s Kurdish-run region. Officials have noted that in the past, Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups have been responsible for numerous rocket attacks that targeted U.S. personnel or facilities in Iraq.
Kirby also said the American retaliation was meant to punish the perpetrators of the attack but not to escalate hostilities with Iran, with which the Biden administration has sought to renew talks on a nuclear deal that former President Trump had put aside.
Trump has said the death of a U.S. contractor would be a red line and provoke U.S. escalation in Iraq. The December 2019 killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack in Kirkuk sparked a fight on Iraqi soil that culminated in the killing of Iranian commander Soleimani and brought Iraq to the brink of a proxy war.
U.S. forces have been significantly reduced in Iraq to 2,500 personnel and no longer partake in combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing operations against the Islamic State group.
A little-known Shiite militant group calling itself Saraya Alwiya al-Dam, Arabic for Guardians of Blood Brigade, claimed responsibility for the Feb. 15 attack. A week later, a rocket attack in Baghdad’s Green Zone appeared to target the U.S. Embassy compound, but no one was hurt.
Iran said it has no links to the Guardians of Blood Brigade. Iran-backed groups have splintered significantly since the U.S.-directed strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad more than a year ago. Both were key in commanding and controlling a wide array of Iran-backed groups operating in Iraq.
