said Friday that Iran should view his decision to
authorize US airstrikes in Syria as a warning that
it can expect consequences for its support of
militia groups that threaten US interests or
personnel.
“You can’t act with impunity. Be careful,” Biden
said when a reporter asked what message he had
intended to send with the airstrikes, which the
Pentagon said destroyed several buildings in
eastern Syria but were not intended to eradicate
the militia groups that used them to facilitate
attacks inside Iraq.
Administration officials defended the Thursday
night airstrikes as legal and appropriate, saying
they took out facilities that housed valuable
“capabilities” used by Iranian-backed militia
groups to attack American and allied forces in
Iraq.
John Kirby, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson,
said members of Congress were notified before
the strikes as two Air Force F-15E aircraft
launched seven missiles, destroying nine facilities
and heavily damaging two others, rendering both
“functionally destroyed.” He said the facilities, at
“entry control points” on the border, had been
used by militia groups the US deems responsible
for recent attacks against US interests in Iraq.
In a political twist for the new Democratic
administration, several leading Congress
members in Biden’s own party denounced the
strikes, which were the first military actions he
authorized. Democrats said the airstrikes were
done without authorization from lawmakers,
while Republicans were more supportive.
“Offensive military action without congressional
approval is not constitutional absent
extraordinary circumstances,” said Senator Tim
Kaine, a Virginia Democrat. And Senator Chris
Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said lawmakers
must hold the current administration to the same
standards as any other. “Retaliatory strikes not
necessary to prevent an imminent threat,” he
said, must get congressional authorization.
Two US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles fly over the US Central
Command area of responsibility in an undisclosed location,
Feb. 10, 2021. (US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Sean Carnes)
But Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking

Republican on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, backed the decision as “the correct,
proportionate response to protect American
lives.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told
reporters Friday that Biden used his
constitutional authority to defend US personnel.
“The targets were chosen to correspond to the
recent attacks on facilities and to deter the risk
of additional attacks over the coming weeks,” she
said.

Among the recent attacks cited was a February
15 rocket attack in northern Iraq that killed one
civilian contractor and wounded a US service
member and other coalition troops.
At the Pentagon, Kirby said the operation was “a
defensive strike” on a waystation used by
militants to move weapons and materials for
attacks into Iraq. But he noted that while it sent a
message of deterrence and eroded their ability to
strike from that compound, the militias have
other sites and capabilities. He said the strikes
resulted in “casualties” but declined to provide
further details on how many were killed or
injured and what was inside the buildings
pending the completion of a broader assessment
of damage inflicted.

An Iraqi militia official said Friday that the
strikes killed one fighter and wounded several
others.
Kirby said the facilities hit in the attack were
near Boukamal, on the Syrian side of the Iraq
border, along the Euphrates River.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a media
briefing at the Pentagon, in Washington, Feb. 17, 2021. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

“This location is known to facilitate Iranian-
aligned militia group activity,” he said. He
described the site as a “compound” that
previously had been used by the Islamic State
group when it held sway in the area.
The Iraqi militia official told The Associated Press
that the strikes against the Kataeb Hezbollah, or
Hezbollah Brigades, hit an area along the border
between the Syrian site of Boukamal facing Qaim
on the Iraqi side. The official was not authorized
to speak publicly of the attack and spoke on
condition of anonymity.

Speaking to reporters Thursday evening shortly
after the airstrikes were carried out, Defense
Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “I’m confident in the
target that we went after. We know what we hit.”
Biden’s decision to attack in Syria did not appear
to signal an intention to widen US military
involvement in the region but rather to
demonstrate a will to defend US troops in Iraq
and send a message to Iran. The Biden
administration in its first weeks has emphasized
its intent to put more focus on the challenges
posed by China, even as Mideast threats persist.

The US has previously targeted facilities in Syria
belonging to Kataeb Hezbollah, which it has
blamed for numerous attacks targeting US
personnel and interests in Iraq. The Iraqi Kataeb
is separate from the Lebanese Hezbollah terror
group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a
Britain-based group that monitors the war in
Syria, said the strikes targeted a shipment of
weapons that were being taken by trucks entering
Syrian territories from Iraq. The group said 22
fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces, an
Iraqi umbrella group of mostly Shiite
paramilitaries that includes Kataeb Hezbollah,
were killed. The British-based war monitor has
regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of
inflating casualty numbers, as well as inventing
them wholesale.
Fighters with Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular
Mobilization Forces, wave Iraqi flags while mourners and
family members prepare to bury the body of Abu Mahdi al-
Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias who was
killed in a US airstrike in Iraq, during his funeral procession in
Najaf, Iraq, January 8, 2020. (Anmar Khalil/AP)
In a statement, Kataeb Hezbollah confirmed one
of its fighters was killed and said it reserved the
right to retaliate, without elaborating. Kataeb
Hezbollah, like other Iranian-backed factions,
maintains fighters in Syria to both fight against
the Islamic State group and assist Syrian
President Bashar Assad’s forces in that country’s
civil war.

Austin said he was confident the US had hit back
at “the same Shia militants” that carried out the
February 15 rocket attack in northern Iraq.
Kirby credited Iraqis with providing valuable
intelligence that allowed the US to identify the
groups responsible for attacks earlier this year.
The US, he said, then determined the appropriate
target for the retaliatory strike.

He said the US also notified Russia shortly before
the strike as part of the ongoing deconfliction
process of military activities in Syria. A Friday
report said the US had also notified Israel of the
impending strike as a routine update that occurs
whenever US operations may affect Israel and
vice versa.
“The operation sends an unambiguous message:
President Biden will act to protect American and
coalition personnel,” Kirby said.
Syria condemned the US strike, calling it “a
cowardly and systematic American aggression,”
warning that the attack will lead to
consequences. Iran and Russia also denounced
the attack .
U forces have been significantly reduced in Iraq
to 2,500 personnel and no longer partake in
combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing
operations against the Islamic State group.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-says-us-airstrikes-in-syria-sent-warning-to-iran-be-careful/