WASHINGTON – The United States on Thursday carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria on buildings belonging to what, according to the Pentagon, are Iranian-backed militants responsible for recent attacks on U.S. and allied personnel in Iraq.
President Biden approved the strikes in response to the rocket in Iraq and to ongoing threats to U.S. and coalition personnel there, said John F. Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary.
A rocket attack on February 15 at the airport in Erbil, northern Iraq, killed a Filipino contractor with the U.S. military coalition and wounded six others, including a Louisiana National Guard soldier and four U.S. contractors.
U.S. officials say the strikes were a relatively small, carefully calibrated military response: seven 500-pound bombs dropped on a small group of buildings at an unofficial crossing at the Syria-Iraq border used to smuggling weapons and fighters.
The strikes were just across the border in Syria to avoid diplomatic setbacks for the Iraqi government. U.S. officials said the Pentagon offered larger groups of targets, but Mr. Biden has approved a less aggressive option.
The U.S. airstrikes on Thursday “specifically destroyed several facilities located at a border checkpoint used by a number of Iranian militants, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada,” Kirby said.
“This proportionate military response has been carried out in conjunction with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners,” he added. “The operation sends a clear message: President Biden will take action to protect American and coalition personnel.”
Mr Kirby said the US retaliation was intended to punish the perpetrators of the rocket attack, but not to increase hostility with Iran, with which the Biden government sought to end talks on a nuclear deal that President Donald J. Trump drafted, to renew.
“We have acted deliberately with the aim of weakening the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” he said. Kirby said.
The attack on Erbil airport was claimed by a small group of Awliya al Dam, or Guardian of the Blood, brigades. The group also claimed responsibility for two bombings of U.S. contractors in August.
Little is known about the group, including whether it is backed by Iran or related to the organizations that used the facilities targeted by the U.S. airstrikes on Thursday. Some US officials claim that the group is merely a front for one of the more well-known Shia militias.
Michael P. Mulroy, a former top official in the Middle East at the Pentagon, said the limited strikes apparently were meant to indicate that Iran’s use of militias as proxies did not hold them responsible for the attack on Americans. would not avoid. But the time and place of the attack were also very important.
“The decision to strike in Syria instead of Iraq would probably prevent the Iraqi government from causing problems, a key partner in the ongoing efforts against ISIS,” Mulroy said in an email. “It was smart to strike in Syria and avoid the setback in Iraq.”
Mr. Biden discussed the rocket attacks on Tuesday in a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. A White House statement later said the two agreed “that those responsible for such attacks should be held fully accountable.”
The retaliatory attacks, which took place on Thursday around 18:00 in Washington or 02:00 in eastern Syria, had been going on for several days, while US intelligence agencies were working to establish a strong confidence that the two Iraqi civilians were responsible for the rocket attacks.
U.S. officials said the attack killed a “handful” of civilians, but the Pentagon did not provide a detailed assessment of the damage.
The Saberin News Telegram channel, which is affiliated with the Iranian-backed civilian force in Iraq, reported one dead and several injured. The strikes are said to be aimed at an empty building and another structure used by the militia. The bases were in an area between Al Qaem and Abu Kamal, near the Syria-Iraq border.
Mr. Biden approved the strikes Thursday morning when his secretary of defense was in a hotel in San Diego and was preparing to visit the aircraft carrier Nimitz, which is returning from the Persian Gulf.
Mr Austin expressed confidence that the facilities targeted were being used by militia groups responsible for the attacks. He told reporters on board his plane on Thursday night that Biden’s government was “deliberate” in its approach.
“We have allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to explore and develop intelligence, and it has been very helpful for us to refine the target,” he said.
The government of Biden has taken a more moderate response to the rocket firing in Erbil than the campaign of Mr. Trump against Iran and the previous actions of his proxies in Iraq – one that the Iraqi government has often caught in the crossfire.
Administration officials have said since the attack on Erbil that the United States will respond to the strike at a time and place of their choice.
Nevertheless, the deliberation of the approach of the new administration in Washington as well as in Baghdad has raised questions about where the red lines of Mr. Biden is when it comes to responding to attacks by Iranian-backed militants targeting Americans in Iraq.
The U.S. military has reduced the number of troops in Iraq to less than 2,500 and has withdrawn from several bases there over the past two years. It says Iraq no longer needs the help it has done in the past to fight the Islamic State, although U.S. officials have acknowledged that militia attacks are also taken into account in the decision to more easily defend troops to bases.
Iran has made it clear that it intends to take back the US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, which killed a top Iranian commander, Major General Qassim Suleimani, and a senior Iraqi security official. Days after the strike, the Iranian government launched rocket attacks on US troops at the Ain al Assad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province, wounding more than 100 troops.
Julian E. Barnes contributed reports from Washington and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.