US Bombs Iranian Facilities In Syria

Table of Contents

What has happened?

The United States conducted a military airstrike in eastern Syria along the border with Iraq on Thursday night targeting Iranian-backed militias
In retaliation for a recent rocket strike in Erbil in northern Iraq that left several Americans injured, according to the Pentagon.

The airstrike targeted structures in the eastern Syrian town of Al Bukamal that belong to two Iranian-backed militias
That have launched rocket attacks in the past against American facilities in Iraq, including the S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to a U.S. official.

Order from Biden

“At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria,“
John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement issued Thursday night.
“These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” Kirby continued.
“Specifically, the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kait’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kait’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).“
Another official described the airstrike as targeting a location through which both groups engaged in smuggling into Iraq.
“This proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with Coalition partners,” said Kirby.
“The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and Coalition personnel.”
The airstrike was in retaliation for a Feb. 15 rocket attack against a U.S. base in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil that killed a coalition contractor and left several American contractors and a U.S. military service member wounded.
“We’re confident in the target we went after. We know what we hit. We’re confident that target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes,“ Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Austin said he had recommended the airstrike to Biden and added that the U.S. had encouraged the Iraqi government “to investigate and develop intelligence and that was very helpful to us in refining the target.”

US-Iran relations

The strikes come as Washington and Tehran position themselves for negotiations about Iran’s nuclear program, potentially complicating an already fragile process.
The US had not definitively blamed any specific group for the rocket attacks or attributed them to any Iranian proxies in the region,

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denied any ties to the February 15 attack in Erbil and Iran has not claimed responsibility for any of the other strikes.
“While these rumors are strongly rejected, the dubious attempt to attribute it to Iran is also strongly condemned,“
Khatibzadeh said, according to a February 16 report by Iran’s state official news agency Mehr.