The United States carried out a series of military strikes on Friday against Iranian forces and the militias they support in seven locations in Syria and Iraq. This marked a sharp escalation in the war in the Middle East that the Biden administration has been trying to prevent for four months.
The airstrikes targeted command and control operations, intelligence centers, weapons facilities and bunkers used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. They made good on President Biden’s promise to respond to a drone strike in Jordan on Sunday that killed three American soldiers and injured at least 40 other soldiers.
The military action was also intended to send a message to Iran and the militias it supports that continued attacks on U.S. troops in the region and merchant ships in the Red Sea would prompt a response.
According to a statement from US Central Command, the strikes hit more than 85 targets in various locations and used more than 125 precision-guided munitions.
“Last Sunday, three American soldiers were killed in Jordan by a drone fired by militant groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” President Biden said in a statement. “Our response began today.”
Mr. Biden authorized the strikes earlier this week. He even telegraphed that they were coming when he told reporters on Tuesday that he had made a decision on how to respond to the drone strike on a remote outpost in Jordan. Middle East analysts said many Revolutionary Guard trainers returned to Iran this week for fear of being hit while militia leaders remained in hiding.
But U.S. officials made clear that Friday night’s attacks would be followed by others in the coming days, weeks and perhaps even months. Two American officials said the United States also conducted cyber operations against Iranian targets on Friday, but declined to provide details.
The American response, Mr. Biden said in his statement on Friday, “will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
“The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world,” he said. “But let anyone who might try to harm us know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
American bombers struck targets at four sites in Syria and three sites in Iraq in a 30-minute strike, U.S. officials said. John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters Friday evening that the Iraqi government had been notified before the attacks.
Mr. Kirby said the targets in each location were chosen because they were related to specific attacks against American troops in the region and to avoid civilian casualties. He said he did not know whether Iranians or militia members were killed or injured in the attack.
The point of the attacks, Mr. Kirby said, was to “take away the ability” of the militias to continue attacking American troops. “This wasn’t just a texting routine tonight.”
By avoiding targets in Iran, the White House and Central Command are trying to send a deterrent message while controlling escalation. It is clear from statements from the White House and Tehran that neither the United States nor Iran want a major war. But as the attack in Jordan showed, every military action carries the risk of misjudgment.
The Biden administration conducted what it called a “graded” response — striking multiple targets from the air. The Pentagon deployed two American B-1B bombers that departed Dyess Air Force Base in Texas early Friday and began the more than 6,000-mile flight to deliver their load of ammunition from the skies over Iraq and Syria.
Deploying B1-B bombers from American soil brought several benefits, officials said. The B-1Bs can carry dozens of precision munitions, allowing commanders in the region to keep their land- and carrier-based attack aircraft in reserve for follow-up strikes, a U.S. official said. Middle Eastern countries that host American attack aircraft are increasingly reluctant to use their bases for offensive strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen to avoid being perceived as supporting Israel. The attack on sites in the Middle East using U.S.-launched aircraft that refueled in mid-air was a massive demonstration of global reach and capability, the official said.
“The beauty of the American bomber is that we can strike anywhere in the world at a time of our choosing,” Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims, the military’s director of the Joint Staff, told reporters Friday night.
Officials said the strike was timed for clear weather. While the military can strike in cloud cover, a clear evening offers a higher level of confidence.
General Sims said that once it was light in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, military analysts would closely examine the targets hit. But he said the Pentagon was confident the bombers “hit exactly what they wanted to hit.” Secondary explosions showed that the Air Force planes had hit the ammunition depots they were targeting, he said.
In a statement later on Friday, Iraqi Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasool called American action in Iraq “unacceptable” and “a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”
With Friday’s attacks, the government launched a new phase in its efforts to address the widening conflict that began on Oct. 7 when the militant group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli retaliation has since killed more than 26,000 people, most of them women and children.
Mr. Biden and his top aides have been reluctant to take steps that could embroil the United States in a major war in an already highly unstable region. “That’s not what I’m looking for,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also said on Wednesday that Tehran was “not looking for war.” And Kata’ib Hezbollah, one of the groups that U.S. officials say may be responsible for the attack, made a surprise announcement Tuesday that it was halting military operations in Iraq, where it operates. However, the Revolutionary Guard leader also warned that Iran was prepared to respond in the event of an attack.
With the recent strikes, this possibility is getting closer and closer. Administration officials said Mr. Biden had little choice but to strike back after the attack in Jordan killed the three American soldiers, especially as their deaths came amid a steady stream of attacks by Iran-backed groups such as the Houthis in Yemen and the Kata’ib Hezbollah took place in Iraq. And now experts say there is real fear that Iran could be drawn even further into the conflict.
Mr. Biden has been under pressure from Republicans at home to respond forcefully to the attacks in Jordan. But critics on Capitol Hill said Friday that the president’s warnings of impending attacks had allowed Iranian and militia commanders and advisers to flee.
“The Biden administration has spent nearly a week foolishly telegraphing America’s intentions to our adversaries and giving them time to move and hide,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.
Friday’s U.S. strikes could be just the beginning of a longer series of attacks aimed at disrupting or damaging the ability of Iran-backed militias to fire missiles and drones and to target American troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan to destroy. According to the Pentagon, the militias have carried out at least 166 such attacks since October 7.
Mr. Kirby signaled that strategy when he said on Tuesday that it was “very possible” that the United States would undertake “not just a single action, but potentially multiple actions over a period of time.”
The B-1B bombers were in the air on Friday as Mr. Biden attended the dignified transfer of the three soldiers killed in Jordan: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23. Her remains arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Friday. The Army Reserve said this week that it had posthumously promoted Specialists Moffett and Sanders to sergeant and Sergeant Rivers to staff sergeant.
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2024-02-03 01:37:32
www.nytimes.com
