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The United States launched airstrikes in Syria on Thursday against facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the attacks were in retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed a civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops.
The airstrike was the first military action undertaken by the Biden administration, which in its first weeks has emphasized its intention to focus more on the challenges posed by China, even as threats persist in the Middle East.
“This provided military response was carried out in conjunction with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners.”said the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, John Kirby, when announcing the attacks.
“The operation sends an unequivocal message: President Biden will act to protect US and coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to reduce the overall situation in eastern Syria and Iraq. “
John Kirby, Senior Pentagon Spokesperson
Kirby said the American airstrikes “They destroyed multiple facilities at a border checkpoint used by various Iranian-backed militant groups.”
No further details were immediately available.
Biden administration officials condemned the February 15 rocket attack near the town of Irbil in Iraq’s Kurdish-run semi-autonomous region, but as recently as this week officials indicated they had not determined with certainty who carried it out. Officials have noted that Iran-backed Shiite militia groups have been responsible for numerous rocket attacks on US personnel or facilities in Iraq in the past.
Kirby had said Tuesday that Iraq is in charge of investigating the February 15 attack.
“At this time, we cannot give you some attribution as to who was behind these attacks, which groups, and I am not going to go into tactical details of each weapon used here,” Kirby said. “Let the investigations be completed and concluded, and then when we have more to say, we will.”
A little-known Shiite militant group calling itself Saraya Awliya al-Dam, in Arabic for Guardians of the Blood, claimed responsibility for the February 15 attack. A week later, a rocket attack in Baghdad’s Green Zone appeared to target the US Embassy compound, but no one was injured.
Iran said this week that it has no ties to the Bloodguard Brigade.
The frequency of attacks by Shiite militias against US targets in Iraq declined late last year before President Joe Biden took office, although now Iran is pressuring the United States to return to the 2015 Tehran nuclear deal. The United States under the previous Trump administration blamed Iranian-backed groups for carrying out the attacks. Tensions soared after a Washington-led drone attack that killed the senior Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and the mighty leader of the Iraqi militiaí Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis last year.
Trump had said that the death of an American contractor would be a red line and trigger an American escalation in Iraq. The December 2019 killing of an American civilian contractor in a rocket attack in Kirkuk sparked a tit-for-tat fight on Iraqi soil that brought the country to the brink of indirect warfare.
US forces have been significantly reduced in Iraq to 2,500 troops and they are no longer engaged in combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing operations against the Islamic State group.
