Biden orders airstrike in Syria targeting Iran-backed militias

WASHINGTON The United States on Thursday carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria against buildings belonging to what the Pentagon has called Iran-backed militias responsible for recent attacks on US and allied personnel in Iraq.

President Biden authorized the strikes in response to the explosions in Iraq and the continuing threats against U.S. and coalition personnel there, said John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, who spoke with reporters traveling with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III to California.

A rocket attack on February 15 at Erbil airport in northern Iraq killed a Filipino contractor from the US-led military coalition and injured six others, including a soldier from the Louisiana National Guard and four American contractors.

U.S. officials said the strikes were a relatively small and carefully calibrated military response: seven 500-pound bombs dropped on a small group of buildings at an unofficial crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border used for smuggling weapons and fighters.

The strikes took place just over the Syrian border to prevent a diplomatic flashback to the Iraqi government. The Pentagon proposed larger groups of targets, but Biden endorsed a less aggressive option, US officials said.

Thursday’s US airstrikes specifically destroyed several facilities at a border checkpoint used by a number of Iranian-backed militia troops, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kirby said. .

This proportionate military response was accompanied by diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners, he added. The operation sends a clear message: President Biden will act to protect U.S. and coalition personnel.

Mr Kirby said the US retaliation was aimed at punishing the perpetrators of the rocket attack but not at escalating hostilities with Iran, with which the Biden administration has sought to resume talks over a nuclear deal that the President Donald J. Trump had put it aside.

We have acted in a deliberate manner aimed at defusing the general situation both in eastern Syria and in Iraq, Kirby said.

The Erbil airport attack was claimed by a little-known group called the Awliya al Dam, or Guardian of the Blood, brigades. The group also claimed responsibility for two bombings against convoys of US contractors in August.

Little is known about the group, including whether it is backed by Iran or linked to organizations that used the facilities targeted by the US airstrikes on Thursday. Some US officials argue that the group is just a front for one of the best-known Shiite militias.

Michael P. Mulroy, a former senior Middle East politician at the Pentagon, said the limited strikes seemed intended to signal that the Iranian use of militias as proxies would not allow them to escape responsibility for attack the Americans. But the time and place of the attack were also important.

The decision to strike in Syria instead of Iraq was likely to avoid causing problems for the Iraqi government, a key partner in the continued efforts against ISIS, Mulroy said in an email. It was wise to strike in Syria and avoid backlash in Iraq.

Mr Biden had discussed the rocket attacks in a phone call Tuesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. A White House statement then said the two men agreed that those responsible for these attacks must be fully held accountable.

The retaliatory strikes, which took place around 6 p.m. Thursday in Washington, or 2 a.m. Friday in eastern Syria, had been underway for several days as US intelligence agencies worked to build great confidence in the fact that the two Iraqi militias were responsible for the rocket attacks. .

US officials said the attack killed a handful of militiamen, but the Pentagon did not provide a detailed assessment of the damage.

Saberin News Telegram, affiliated with an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, reported one death and several wounded. He said the strikes targeted an empty building and another structure used by the militia. The bases were in an area between Al Qaem and Abu Kamal, near the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Mr Biden authorized the strikes Thursday morning, while his defense secretary was in a hotel in San Diego, preparing to visit the aircraft carrier Nimitz, which was returning home from the Persian Gulf.

Austin said he was convinced the targeted facilities were being used by the militias responsible for the attacks. Speaking to reporters on his plane Thursday evening, he said the Biden administration was deliberate in its approach.

We have allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence and this has been very helpful to us in fine-tuning the target, he said.

The Biden administration has reacted more measuredly to the rocket shooting in Erbil than Mr. Trump’s campaign against Iran and the past actions of his proxies in Iraq, which have often caught the Iraqi government in crossfire.

Administration officials have said since the Erbil attack that the United States will respond to the strike when and where it chooses.

Despite this, the deliberate nature of the new administration’s approach has raised questions in Washington and Baghdad as to where Mr. Bidens’ red lines are when it comes to responding to attacks by militias backed by the government. Iran targeting the Americans in Iraq.

The US military has reduced the number of troops in Iraq to less than 2,500 and has withdrawn from several bases over the past two years. He says Iraq no longer needs the help it had in the past to fight the Islamic State, although US officials have acknowledged that the militia attacks also factored into the decision to relocate. troops to more easily defended bases.

Iran has made it clear that it intends to continue its retaliation against the US drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020 that killed a senior Iranian commander, General Qassim Suleimani, and a senior Iraqi security official. . A few days after the strike, the Iranian government launched missile attacks against US forces on the Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province, injuring more than 100 soldiers.

Julian E. Barnes has contributed reporting for Washington and Farnaz Fassihi of New York.

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