Newsman: U.S. military forces carried out what a Pentagon official called “defensive” airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on Sunday against Iran-backed militia groups that were behind drone attacks on American personnel. Navy Cmdr. Jessica McNulty said Sunday night that Iranian-backed militias have launched five drone attacks against facilities used by U.S. and allied troops in Iraq since April. Militia members have also fired rockets.
The strikes hit their intended targets, McNulty said.
“Their elimination will disrupt and degrade the operational capacity of the militia groups and deter additional attacks,” she said. But the operation’s effect remained unclear, added McNulty.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement that the airstrikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq. The facilities were used by at least two militias, Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kirby said.
Kirby stressed in his statement that Biden ordered the attacks in self-defense, an obligation the president has under the U.S. Constitution. It’s an important distinction, as Congress has moved to repeal the nearly two-decade-old war resolution that paved the way for the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
“As demonstrated by this evening’s strikes, President Biden has been clear that he will act to protect U.S. personnel,” Kirby said. “Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting U.S. interests in Iraq, the President directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks.”
Kirby said that President Joe Biden, who authorized the strikes, “directed further military action to disrupt and deter” attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel in Iraq. There have been five drone attacks since April, McNulty said. She added that rocket strikes are “ongoing.”
“We are in Iraq at the invitation of the Government of Iraq for the sole purpose of assisting the Iraqi Security Forces in their efforts to defeat ISIS,” Kirby said. “The United States took necessary, appropriate, and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation – but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message.”
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, reported that a child was injured and three other civilians were injured, but it has not been independently confirmed by NBC News.
U.S. F-15 and F-16 warplanes carried out the airstrikes, targeting three facilities that had been used to control the drones and for logistics, USA today reported referring a Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly. All the pilots returned safely. It’s too early to tell if there were casualties on the ground among civilians or militants, the official said.
The airstrikes come as the Biden administration considers lifting sanctions on Iran in an effort to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which was negotiated under the Obama administration and sought to blunt Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity.
President Joe Biden ordered a similar retaliatory strike in February. That was the first attack ordered by Biden and came in response to rocket attacks on a base in northern Iraq that killed a contractor and wounded U.S. and allied troops. In April, U.S. officials attributed an attack on a base in northern Iraq to Iran-backed forces using small drones.
Former President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal three years ago, arguing it was slanted toward Iran. The Trump administration also imposed damaging sanctions on the country.
U.S. forces carried out airstrikes earlier this year against the same Iran-backed militias that the Pentagon said were behind a rocket attack in northern Iraq. The attack killed a Filipino contractor working with an American-led military coalition and injured six people, including a Louisiana National Guard soldier and four American contractors.
