The United States carried out its first military action on Thursday under President biden, targeting the infrastructure used by Iranian-backed militant groups in Syria in response to the recent rocket attacks in Iraq. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters traveling with him that he recommended the attack on Biden, who authorized him in a phone call on Thursday morning.
“The operation sends an unequivocal message: President Biden will act to protect American coalition personnel,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Iran-supported militias They have targeted US forces in Iraq and Syria for years, most recently in a rocket attack in the northern Iraq city of Erbil last week that wounded four American contractors and a military man.
The attacks destroyed several facilities at a border control point in al Bukamal, Syria, used by several Iranian-supported militant groups, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al Shuhada, according to Kirby.
The Pentagon spokesman did not mention any victims, but the UK monitoring group, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, said on Friday that 22 people were killed in the attacks, which hit three trucks carrying ammunition from Iraq to Iraq. Syria.
The organization, which has an extensive network of local sources in Syria and generally provides reliable information, said all those killed were considered to be members of Iran-backed militias, most of them from Kataib Hezbollah. The Observatory said the death toll is likely to increase because some of the injured are in serious condition. The group’s sources said that immediately after the attacks, Iranian-backed groups rushed to evacuate several locations in al Bukamal, fearing further US attacks.
Carefully chosen target
In his presidency’s first military attack, Biden approved a target along the Syria-Iraq border that would serve as revenge for Will putting US personnel in danger – but avoid further increasing tension with Tehran as it tries to bring the Islamic Republic back to ruined nuclear deal 2015.
A government official confirmed that Biden’s team selected the targets as part of a calibrated response designed to achieve three goals: send a signal to Iran that the new president of the United States would not tolerate rocket attacks that would place US personnel. in danger; avoid irritating US partners in Iraq who need to maintain good relations with Tehran and Washington and avoid provoking Iran to retaliate further.
Two former Trump administration officials told CBS News that the Al Bukamal area has been the target of several Israeli attacks in recent months because it serves as a hub for Iran-backed Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq. Both officers approved the choice of location with approval.
One of the former employees said, “It is easier to send messages there, as we are less exposed.”
The Biden government’s attack on Iran-backed militias continues in the wake of its first diplomatic disclosure to Iran about American hostages in the country, as well as the public offer made by European diplomats to restart negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program. Both diplomatic initiatives were made last week.
Last week, a rocket attack in Erbil, northern Iraq, killed a contractor, who was not an American citizen, and injured four American contractors and an American military. A total of eight contractors were injured, two of them of sufficient gravity to require evacuation.
The United States had evidence that the attack was conducted with equipment provided by Iran. The attack on Erbil consisted of 14 rockets, with six more left on the launcher’s tracks.
The most recent air strike against Iran-backed militias was in December 2019, which hit targets in Iraq and Syria. There was no immediate response from Iranian officials to the U.S. attack on Thursday.
Eleanor Watson and Tucker Reals contributed reporting.