WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered airstrikes on buildings in Syria that, according to the Pentagon, are being used by militants backed by Iran as retaliation for rocket attacks on U.S. targets in neighboring Iraq.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby described the bombing in eastern Syria as carefully calibrated, calling it “proportionate” and “defensive.”
The operation was the first known use of military force by the Biden government, which for weeks focused on plans to focus more on challenges posed by China.
The president’s decision appears to send a signal to Iran and its proxy in the region that Washington would not tolerate attacks on its staff in Iraq, even at a sensitive diplomatic moment.
Three rocket attacks in one week in Iraq, including a deadly attack that hit a U.S. coalition base in the Iraqi city of Irbil, offered a test to Biden just weeks after he accepted the presidency. The rocket attacks coincide with a diplomatic initiative launched by the government to try to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
The airstrikes “were authorized in response to recent attacks on U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq and on ongoing threats to personnel,” Kirby said in a statement.
The operation “destroyed several facilities located at a border control point used by a number of militant groups supported by Iran,” including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, he said.
Syrian and Iranian officials did not immediately respond to the strike.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that 22 people had been killed in the strikes. The London monitoring group did not provide details on how he obtained the figure. Meanwhile, Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, said 17 ‘resistance fighters’ were killed in the strikes, but also did not provide details on the source of the figure, other than ‘reports’.
A senior U.S. defense official told NBC News on Thursday night that the target was a transit center near the Iraq-Syrian border used by military fighters, and that it was too early to say which casualties were inflicted on the militants.
‘The operation sends a clear message: President Biden will take action to protect US and coalition personnel. “At the same time, we have acted deliberately with the aim of weakening the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” he said.
Two U.S. planes were involved in the strikes that took place in Syria around 6pm EST on Thursday or 2am on Friday, the official said.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters who traveled with him that the government was “very deliberate about our approach”.
“We are confident that the target is being used by the same Shiite civilian force that carried out the attacks,” Austin said, referring to the recent rocket attacks on Iraq on U.S. and coalition personnel.
The Pentagon had earlier said it was awaiting the outcome of an Iraqi investigation into the Irbil rocket attack.
“We have allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to explore and develop intelligence, and it has been very helpful for us to refine the target,” said Austin, who spoke after a visit to California and Colorado on his way to Washington.
Biden approved the operation Thursday morning, he said.
A civilian contractor was killed in the Irbil rocket attack, and a U.S. service member and others were injured. At least two 107 mm rockets landed on the base, which also hosts Irbil’s civilian international airport.
NBC News previously reported that militias backed by Iran were most likely behind the Irbil rocket attack, and that the weapons and tactics were similar to previous attacks by Iranian militias. However, it was unclear whether Iran would have encouraged or ordered the rocket attack.
An obscure group called Saraya Awliya al-Dam, or Guardians of the Blood, claimed responsibility for the attack on Irbil. But former diplomats and regional analysts have said the group is merely a front-line organization formed by Iraqi major Shiite militias.
Following the Irbil base rocket attack, Iraq’s Balad air base fired under rocket fire days later, where a U.S. defense agency was operating the country’s fighter jets, and then two rockets landed near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
Iran has rejected any connection to the rocket attacks.
In a telephone conversation Tuesday between Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the two leaders agreed that “those responsible for such attacks should be held fully accountable,” according to a White House reading of the conversation.
Dennis Ross, a former senior U.S. diplomat who has worked under several presidents on Middle East policy, said the government had reduced the risk of causing friction with the Iraqi government by hitting targets in Syria.
“Hitting facilities used by the militias just across the border in Syria reduces the risk of setbacks against the Iraqi government,” Ross said. tweeted.
Dan De Luce and Mosheh Gains reported from Washington; Ali Arouzi reports from London; Amin Hossein Khodadadi reports from Tehran; and Charlene Gubash reported from Cairo.
Associated Press contributed.
Ali Arouzi, Amin Hossein Khodadadi and Charlene Gubash contributed.