Joe Biden orders retaliatory airstrikes in Syria targeting Iran-backed militias

The US carried out a retaliatory airstrike in Syria on Thursday that targeted facilities belonging to Iran-backed militias.

A member of the Iraqi armed group was killed in the bombing and a number of others were wounded, an Iraqi militia official said on Friday.

But UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP that the attacked killed at least 17 Iran-backed fighters.

The bombing was the first military action undertaken by Joe Biden’s administration.

The Pentagon said the strikes were in retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq on February 15 that killed a civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and five other contractors.

An Iraqi militia official told the Associated Press that the strikes against the Kataeb Hezbollah militia, or Hezbollah Brigades, hit an area along the border between the Syrian site of Boukamal facing Qaim on the Iraqi side.

He spoke to the news agency on the condition of anonymity because he was not formally authorised to speak of the attack.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, who recommended the action to Mr Biden, told reporters: "I'm confident in the target that we went after, we know what we hit.”

He said he was also “confident” that the US had hit back at the “same Shia militants that conducted the strikes”, referring to the February 15 rocket attack in northern Iraq.

"We said a number of times that we will respond on our timeline," said the Defence Secretary.

"We wanted to be sure of the connectivity and we wanted to be sure that we had the right targets."

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the airstrikes were a "proportionate military response" taken together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners.

He said in a statement: “These strikes were authorised in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel.

“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).

“The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and Coalition personnel.

“At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq.”

A little-known Shiite militant group calling itself Saraya Alwiya al-Dam, Arabic for Guardians of Blood Brigade, claimed responsibility for the February 15 attack.

A week later, a rocket attack in Baghdad's Green Zone that appeared to target the US Embassy compound, but no one was hurt.

Iran this week said it has no links to the Guardians of Blood Brigade.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.

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