Pentagon officials said the strikes were retaliation for recent attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq, including a February 15 rocket attack in northern Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops.
Pentagon chief spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that two F-15E aircraft from the air force had launched seven missiles, completely destroying nine facilities and severely damaging two other facilities, which ‘functionally destroyed’ the two. He said the facilities, at ‘access points’ on the border, had been used by militia groups that the US claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks on US interests in Iraq.
Kirby said the facilities hit during the attack were near Boukamal, on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border, along the Euphrates River.
“It is known that it enables the military group activity that is in line with the Iranian line,” he said. He added that the US had preliminary information on victims at the scene, but did not want to divulge any details pending the completion of a broader evaluation of the damage done. He described the site as a “compound” formerly used by the Islamic State group when it ruled the area.
The Iraqi military official told the Associated Press that the strikes against the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, hit an area along the border between the Syrian territory of Boukamal and Qaim on the Iraqi side. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak of the attack. War monitoring groups in Syria said the strikes hit trucks hitting weapons at a base for Iranian-backed militias in Boukamal.
“I am confident in the target we have pursued, we know what has hit us,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters flying with him from California to Washington shortly after the airstrikes that struck Eastern Standard on Thursday night. Time executed.
In its first weeks, the government in Biden emphasized the intention to focus more on the challenges facing China, even if the threats are from the Middle East. Biden’s decision to attack Syria does not appear to be an intention to increase US military involvement in the region, but rather to demonstrate a willingness to defend US troops in Iraq and send a message to To send Iran.
The US had earlier targeted facilities in Syria belonging to Kataeb Hezbollah, who had blamed numerous attacks on US personnel and interests in Iraq. The Iraqi Kataeb stands apart from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group in Britain monitoring the war in Syria, said the strikes were aimed at a consignment of weapons being taken by trucks from Iraq to Syrian territories. The group said 22 fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitaries including Kataeb Hezbollah, were killed. The report could not be verified independently.
In a statement, the group confirmed that one of its fighters had been killed and said they reserved the right to retaliate without expanding. Kataeb Hezbollah, like other Iranian-backed factions, is holding on to fighters in Syria to fight both against the Islamic State group and assist Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in the country’s civil war.
Secretary of Defense Austin said he was “confident” that the U.S. had retaliated against “the same Shia militants who carried out the strikes”, citing a February 15 rocket attack in northern Iraq that killed one killed civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition personnel.
Austin said he recommended the action to President Biden.
“We’ve said a number of times that we’ll respond to our timeline,” Austin said. “We wanted to be sure of the connectivity and we wanted to be sure we had the right targets.”
Kirby had earlier said the U.S. action was a “proportionate military response” being taken, along with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners.
“The operation sends a clear message: President Biden will take action to protect American and coalition personnel,” Kirby said.
Kirby said the U.S. airstrikes “destroyed several facilities at a border control point used by a number of militant groups backed by Iran,” including Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada.
Further details were not immediately available.
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at the Notre Dame Law School, criticized the US attack as a violation of international law.
“The United Nations Charter makes it absolutely clear that the use of military force in the territory of a foreign sovereign state is only permitted in response to an armed attack on the defending state for which the target state is responsible,” she said. . “None of the elements are being targeted in the Syrian strike.”
Syria condemned the US strike, calling it a “cowardly and systematic US aggression” and warned that the attack would lead to consequences.
“This aggression is a negative indication of the policy of the new US government, which is supposed to comply with international law, not with legal law,” reads a statement from Syria’s Foreign Ministry.
Biden administration officials condemned the rocket attack on February 15 near the city of Irbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, but officials recently indicated they had not determined with certainty who would do it.
Kirby said on Tuesday that Iraq was in charge of investigating the February 15 attack. He added that US officials could not then give a “certain attribution about who is behind these attacks.”
A lesser-known Shiite militant group calling itself Saraya Alwiya al-Dam, Arab for Guardians of Blood Brigade, claimed responsibility for the February 15 attack. A week later, it appears that a rocket attack in Baghdad’s Green Zone targets the US embassy, but no one is injured.
Iran said this week it has no ties to the Guardians of Blood Brigade. Iran – backed groups have splintered significantly since the US-led invasion of Baghdad by Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis more than a year ago. Both have been key to the control and management of a wide range of Iraq – backed groups working in Iraq.
Since their deaths, the militias have become increasingly reckless. Some analysts argue that the armed groups have splintered as a tactic to claim attacks under different names to hide their involvement.
US forces in Iraq have been significantly reduced to 2,500 personnel and no longer take part in combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing operations against the Islamic State group.
Baldor and Burns reported from Washington, DC
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