The US carried out its first military action on Thursday President Biden, targeting infrastructure used by Iranian-backed militant groups in Syria in response to recent missile attacks in Iraq. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters traveling with him that he had recommended the strike to Mr. Biden, who approved it in a phone call Thursday morning.
“The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect US coalition personnel,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Iranian-backed militias have been targeting US forces in Iraq and Syria for years, most recently in a missile attack on the northern Iraqi city of Erbil last week that injured four US contractors and a military member.
The attacks destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point in al Bukamal, Syria, used by a number of Iran-backed militant groups, including Kataib hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al Shuhada, according to Kirby.
The Pentagon spokesman did not name any victims, but the UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Friday that 22 people were killed in the attacks, which he said had hit three trucks of ammunition from Iraq to Syria.
The organization, which relies on a wide network of sources on the ground in Syria and provides generally reliable information, said all the dead were believed to have been members of the Iranian-backed militias, the majority of them from Kataib Hezbollah. The observatory said the death toll was likely to rise as some injured people were in serious condition. The group’s sources said the Iranian-backed groups rushed to evacuate various sites in Al Bukamal immediately after the strikes, fearing further US attacks.
Carefully chosen goal
In the first military strike of his presidency, Mr. Biden approved a target along the Syria-Iraq border that would serve as payback for Iran Endangering U.S. personnel – but don’t stop further escalating tensions with Tehran as he tries to get the Islamic Republic back into the crumbling 2015 nuclear deal
A government official confirmed that the Biden team had selected the targets as part of a calibrated response designed to accomplish three things: send a signal to Iran that the new US president would not tolerate missile attacks that endanger US personnel; avoid angering US partners in Iraq who need to maintain good relations with both Tehran and Washington, and avoid provoking Iran into further retaliation.
Two former Trump administration officials told CBS News that the area of Bukamal has already been the target of dozens of Israeli attacks in recent months, as it serves as a transfer point for the Iranian-backed Shia militias in both Syria and Iraq. Both officials agreed with the site selection.
One of the former officials said, “It’s easier to send messages there because we’re less exposed.”
The Biden government’s attack against Iranian-backed militias follows the first diplomatic reach to Iran concerning US hostages in the country, as well as its public offer through European diplomats to restart talks on Tehran’s nuclear program. Both diplomatic initiatives were taken last week.
Last week, a missile strike in Erbil, Northern Iraq, killed a non-US citizen contractor and wounded four US contractors and a US military. In all, eight contractors were injured, two serious enough to require evacuation.
The United States had evidence that the attack was carried out with equipment supplied by Iran. The attack on Erbil consisted of 14 missiles, with six remaining on the launch rails.
The most recent air strike against Iranian-backed militias was in December 2019 targets hit in both Iraq and SyriaThere was no immediate response from Iranian officials to Thursday’s US strike.
Eleanor Watson and Tucker Reals contributed to the reporting.