WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered air strikes against buildings in Syria that, according to the Pentagon, were used by Iranian-backed militias in retaliation for rocket attacks on American targets in neighboring Iraq.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby portrayed the bombing in eastern Syria as carefully calibrated, calling it “proportional” and “defensive”.
The operation was the first known use of military force by the Biden government, which for weeks emphasized plans to focus more on the challenges presented by China.
The president’s decision seemed to be aimed at sending a signal to Iran and its representatives in the region that Washington would not tolerate attacks on its personnel in Iraq, even in a delicate diplomatic moment.
Three rocket attacks in a week in Iraq, including a deadly strike that hit a US-led coalition base in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, presented a test for Biden just a few weeks after assuming the presidency. The rocket attacks coincided with a diplomatic initiative launched by the government to try to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
The air strikes “were authorized in response to the recent attacks against Americans and coalition personnel in Iraq, and to continuing threats to these personnel,” said Kirby in a statement.
The operation “destroyed several facilities located at a border control point used by several Iranian-backed militant groups”, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, he said.
Syrian and Iranian officials did not immediately react to the attacks.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that 22 people died in the attacks. The London-based monitoring group did not provide details on how it obtained this number. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB News, meanwhile, said 17 “resistance fighters” were killed in the attacks, but it also did not provide details on the source of that number, except citing “reports”.
A senior US defense official told NBC News late on Thursday that the target was a transit center near the Iraq-Syria border used by militiamen, and it was too early to say what casualties could have been inflicted. to militants.
“The operation sends an unequivocal message: President Biden will act to protect Americans and coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted deliberately in order to slow the general situation in eastern Syria and Iraq, ”he said.
Two U.S. aircraft were involved in the attacks that occurred around 6 pm EST on Thursday, or 2 am on Friday in Syria, the official said.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters traveling with him that the government was “very deliberate about our approach”.
“We are confident that the target was being used by the same Shiite militia that led the attacks,” said Austin, referring to the recent rocket attacks in Iraq against the United States and coalition personnel.
The Pentagon had previously said it was awaiting the results of an Iraqi investigation into the Irbil rocket attack.
“We allow and encourage Iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence and that was very helpful for us in refining the target,” said Austin, who spoke on the way to Washington after a visit to California and Colorado.
Biden approved the operation on Thursday morning, he said.
A civilian contractor was killed in the Irbil rocket attack and a member of the US service and others were injured. At least two 107 mm rockets landed at the base, which also hosts Irbil’s international civilian airport.
NBC News had previously reported that Iran-backed militias were probably behind the Irbil rocket attack and that the weapons and tactics resembled previous attacks by Iranian-linked militias. However, it is not clear whether Iran encouraged or ordered the rocket attack.
An obscure group called Saraya Awliya al-Dam, or Custodians of the Blood, took responsibility for the attack on Irbil. But former diplomats and regional analysts said the group was just a front organization created by top Shi’ite militias in Iraq.
After the rocket attack on the Irbil base, the Iraqi air base in Balad was the target of rocket fire days later, where a US defense company provided services to the country’s fighters, and two rockets landed near the US Embassy complex in Baghdad.
Iran rejected any connection to the rocket attacks.
In a phone call on Tuesday between Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the two leaders agreed that “those responsible for such attacks must be held fully accountable,” according to a White House reading of the conversation.
Dennis Ross, a former US diplomat who worked on Middle East policy under several presidents, said the government had reduced the risk of causing friction with the Iraqi government by hitting targets in Syria.
“By attacking the facilities used by militias across the border with Syria, the risk of reaction against the Iraqi government is reduced,” Ross tweeted.
Dan De Luce and Mosheh Gains reported from Washington; Ali Arouzi reported from London; Amin Hossein Khodadadi reported from Tehran; and Charlene Gubash reported from Cairo.
The Associated Press contributed.
Ali Arouzi, Amin Hossein Khodadadi and Charlene Gubash contributed.