Biden Orders Airstrikes in Syria, Retaliating Against Iran-Backed Militias

On Thursday, February 25, U.S. airstrikes targeted bases in Syria used by Iranian-backed militant groups suspected of attacking American and allied forces in northern Iraq, the Pentagon announced.

The strikes, President Biden’s first military action, hit several targets used by militias. The Pentagon blames these militia groups for rocket attacks on an Iraqi military base that hosts coalition troops.

The rocket attacks, which took place in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, killed a civilian contractor with an American military coalition and left six wounded, including a U.S. service member.

Many rockets hit in areas between the civilian international airport, residential areas of the city, and the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including one close to the Chinese Consulate.

A small Shiite militant group self-named Saraya Awliya al-Dam, Arabic for “Guardians of Blood Brigade,” claimed responsibility for the attack.

“The American occupation will not be safe from our strikes in any inch of the homeland, even in Kurdistan, where we promise we will carry out other qualitative operations,” the Awliyaa al-Dam said, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a non-governmental organization that tracks the activity of armed organizations.

When asked for comments, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “we are outraged by last night’s rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.” 

“As always, the President of the United States and the administration reserves the right to respond in the time and the manner of our choosing, but we’ll wait for the attribution to be concluded first before we take any additional steps,” Psaki told reporters on Tuesday, February 16 at the White House. 

The US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi about the attack on Tuesday, February 16.

Blinken “conveyed his outrage” and “discussed efforts underway to identify and hold accountable the groups responsible for yesterday’s attacks,” spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

In response, the United States carried out an airstrike over eastern Syria on Thursday, February 25. Two F-15E Strike Eagles dropped seven, precision-guided munitions, which fully destroyed nine facilities and partially destroyed two others, said Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby

“The strike was authorized in response to recent attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq and to ongoing threats to those personnel. We recognize the significance of this operation as the first of its kind under the new administration” of President Joe Biden, he said.

Kirby then added, “through President Biden’s order, he made clear that the United States will act to protect American and coalition personnel and our security interests in the region.”

Syria condemned the U.S. strike, calling it “a cowardly and systematic American aggression,” warning that the attack will lead to consequences.

The U.S seemingly meant to send a warning to the Iranian government for supporting militia groups that threaten U.S. interests or personnel. Given the two countries’ pasts, tensions are running high.

According to the State Department, U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran have been severed since 1980, “as a result of the Iranian takeover of the American Embassy on November 4, 1979.” Iran has no embassy in Washington, D.C.

Iran has clear intentions to retaliate further for the American drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020 that killed a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, and a senior Iraqi security official. 

Days after that strike, the Iranian government launched missile attacks against U.S. troops at the Ain al Assad air base in Iraq’s Anbar Province, wounding more than 100 service members.

Since the first US airstrike in Syria, NBC News reported that President Biden has “called off an airstrike against a second target in Syria after a woman and children were spotted in the area.”