A US air strike on a Syrian camp used by Iranian-backed militants accused of attacking American bases was a message from President Biden that such attacks would not go unpunished, Pentagon officials said on Friday.
The significance that Tehran has taken from the attack on its representatives remains unclear.
Biden hopes to lure Iran into negotiations to revive a 2015 agreement that restricts Tehran’s nuclear program – which was abandoned by the Trump administration. That goal led to an intense debate within Biden’s national security team over choosing a target that would not trigger an escalation of military conflict with Iran, officials said.
Asked about the message he was sending to Iran with an air strike in Syria, Biden told reporters in Houston on Friday: “You cannot act with impunity. Be careful.”
The dawn attack by two U.S. planes destroyed nine buildings and damaged two others in the field near the city of Dair Alzour, on the border with Syria, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters.
American officials said several groups used the camp to transport arms and personnel to Iraq. Among them were Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, two Iranian-backed militias that the Pentagon believes are responsible for recent attacks, including a rocket barrage on February 15 against a US base in Irbil, Iraq, which killed one contractor and injured several member and contractor services.
The victims of the U.S. attack on Friday are still being assessed, said Kirby. Iraqi officials said the bombing caused at least one death and injured four, although some estimates of online accounts associated with militias say that up to 17 people have been killed.
The limited attack in eastern Syria was intended to signal to Iranians that the United States would not ignore attacks by Iranian representatives, but did not seek a broader military confrontation, officials said. It was no accident that the United States achieved what amounted to a base used by militias, a target equivalent to its attacks on American facilities, officials said.
“This was really a defensive attack … to try to make an impact on these groups and their ability to conduct future attacks and send a very clear signal that the United States will protect its people,” said Kirby on Friday.
The United States has offered no evidence that Tehran has ordered attacks on American facilities, and some officials believe the militias may have executed them on their own.
“Biden’s team is saying, ‘Although we are highly committed to re-establishing dialogue with the Iranians, we can undertake military attacks at the same time,'” said Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy.
Tehran has not signaled whether it will respond militarily to US action, although militia leaders in Iraq have promised to retaliate for the attack.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned the US attack, calling it “illegal aggression” and a violation of human rights and international law.
Hours after the US attack in Syria, an Israeli cargo ship sailing in the Gulf of Oman, close to Iran, was damaged in an explosion, according to several reports. The crew was not injured, but the ship was forced to a port for repairs. The incident occurred near where several other ships were damaged in blasts in 2019. The U.S. Navy attributed the incidents to Iran, which denied involvement.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said it “condemns in the strongest terms the US cowardly attack on areas in Dair Alzour, near the border between Syria and Iraq”. In a statement, he said the Biden government “should stick to international legitimacy, not jungle law as [did] the previous administration. “
In Washington, some Democrats criticized Biden’s decision to conduct an air strike in Syria without first informing Congress of the legal justification, saying it was unclear whether the attack was authorized under existing authorization to use force.
“Iranian-supported militia attacks on Iraqi bases that host American troops are unacceptable,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.). “But Congress must maintain this government to the same standard as it did with previous governments and demand clear legal justifications for military action, especially within theaters like Syria, where Congress has not explicitly authorized any American military action.”
White House officials defended the strike, saying it was carried out under Biden’s constitutional authority to defend US personnel and was legal under international law that allows for self-defense.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that Biden “has the right to act the way he wants” and that the US strike was necessary and “in accordance with the right of self-defense”.
It is unclear how much control Iran has to control militias.
Analysts said Tehran’s control over the militia groups it supports in Iraq has fragmented since January 2020, when then President Trump approved an operation to kill Major General Qassem Suleimani, an Iranian operative responsible for directing the militant groups.
A ceasefire declared in September by Kataib Hezbollah and other factions was maintained largely until Biden took office, but “it is not perfect,” said Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at the Chatham House think tank, based in London.
“These groups are decentralized,” he said. “The Popular Mobilization Forces are not a monolithic organization.”
The US assessment that Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada were behind the attacks on American bases threatened to interrupt Washington’s reach to Tehran, especially since the Biden government had made a series of good faith gestures to resume nuclear negotiations. .
Sabereen News, a channel affiliated with Iran-backed groups, posted images of some of the structures destroyed in the attack, which were used by the groups to stop the flow of Islamic State members to Iraq. He added that most buildings were cleared of fighters before the attack, when “spy planes” were seen circling overhead.
Cloud reported from Washington and Bulos from Beirut.