A U.S. airstrike on a Syrian camp used by Iranian-backed militants accused of attacking U.S. bases was a message from President Biden that such attacks would not go unpunished, officials from the Pentagon said Friday.
The significance that Tehran had of the attack on his proxy is still unclear.
Biden hopes to negotiate with Iran on the revival of a 2015 agreement limiting Tehran’s nuclear program – one that was abandoned by the Trump administration. The goal has led to intense debate within Biden’s national security team over the choice of a target that would not cause an escalating military conflict with Iran, officials said.
Asked what message he was sending to Iran with an air strike in Syria, Biden told reporters in Houston on Friday: “You can not act with impunity. Be careful.”
The attack on Friday of two U.S. warplanes destroyed nine buildings and damaged two others in the camp near Iraqi-Syrian border town of Dair Alzour, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters.
U.S. officials said several groups used the camp to move weapons and personnel to Iraq. These include Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, two militants backed by Iran who, according to the Pentagon, are responsible for recent attacks, including a barrage on February 15 at a U.S. base in Irbil, Iraq, which killed a contractor and wounded several servicemen. members and contractors.
Victims of the U.S. attack on Friday are still being judged, Kirby said. Iraqi officials said the bombing killed at least one person and wounded four, although some estimates from online militias say as many as 17 people were killed.
The limited strike in eastern Syria was intended to indicate to the Iranians that the US would not ignore attacks by Iranian delegates but did not want a broader military confrontation, officials said. It was no coincidence that the U.S. hit, which amounts to a base used by the militias, an equivalent target to their attacks on U.S. facilities, officials said.
“It was really a defensive strike … to influence these groups and their ability to attack future attacks and send a very clear signal that the United States is going to protect its people,” Kirby said Friday.
The U.S. has offered no evidence that Tehran ordered the attacks on U.S. facilities, and some officials believe the militias may have carried them out on their own.
“Although we are strongly committed to re-establishing dialogue with the Iranians, we can undertake military strikes at the same time,” said Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Tehran has not indicated whether it will respond militarily to US action, although militia leaders in Iraq have vowed to retaliate.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, condemned the US strike, calling it “illegal aggression” and a violation of human rights and international law.
Hours after the U.S. attack on Syria, a cargo ship owned by Israel was damaged in the Gulf of Oman near Iran, according to several reports. The crew was not injured, but the ship was forced to port for repairs. The incident took place near where several other ships were damaged during explosions in 2019. The U.S. Navy blames the incidents on Iran, which denies involvement.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said it had “strongly condemned” the cowardly US attack on areas in Dair Alzour near the Syrian-Iraqi border. A statement said Biden’s government was “supposed to adhere to international legitimacy, not to legal law, [did] the previous administration. ”
In Washington, some Democrats were critical of Biden’s decision to carry out an air strike in Syria without first informing Congress of the legal rationale, saying it was not clear that the attack under the current authority was capable of violence. do not use.
“The strikes by Iranian-backed militias on bases in Iraq that house US troops are unacceptable,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.). “But Congress must maintain this administration to the same standard as previous administrations, and require clear legal explanations for military action, especially in theaters such as Syria, where Congress has not explicitly approved any U.S. military action.”
White House officials defended the strike, saying it was carried out under Biden’s constitutional authority to defend U.S. personnel and was legal under international law that allows self-defense.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that Biden “has the right to act in any way he chooses” and that the US strike was necessary and “based on the right of self-defense”.
It is unclear how much control Iran should have over the militias.
Analysts say Tehran’s control of militia groups it supports in Iraq has been shattered since January 2020, when then-President Trump approved an operation to kill Major General Qassem Suleimani, an Iranian operative who had been killed by militants. groups, to kill.
A ceasefire declared by Kataib Hezbollah and other factions in September took place largely until Biden’s inauguration, but ‘it’s not perfect’, said Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq initiative at the London think tank Chatham House. , said.
“These groups are decentralized,” he said. “The popular mobilization forces are not a monolithic organization.”
The U.S. assessment that Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada were behind the attacks on U.S. bases threatened to disrupt Washington’s outreach to Tehran, especially since the Biden government made a number of good faith gestures to resume nuclear talks. .
Sabereen News, a channel linked to groups supported by Iran, posted images of some structures destroyed during the attack, which they said were used by the groups to stop the flow of Islamic State members to Iraq. It added that most buildings were emptied before the strike of fighters when ‘spy planes’ were seen flying overhead.
Cloud reports from Washington and Bulos from Beirut.