Us Again Downplays Deaths From Airstrikes in Iraq and Syria -
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered airstrikes on buildings in Syria that the Pentagon said were used by Iranian-backed militias, in retaliation for rocket attacks on U.S. targets in neighboring Iraq.
The strikes killed at least 22 people, London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Fri, citing unconfirmed local reports.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby portrayed the bombing in eastern Syria every bit carefully calibrated, calling it "proportionate" and "defensive."
Kirby told reporters Friday the bombing caused "casualties" simply said information technology was likewise early to say precisely how many militia fighters might have been killed or wounded.
"We have preliminary indications of casualties on site, I'chiliad non going to go any further than that," Kirby said.
The operation was the first known use of military force by the Biden administration, which has for weeks emphasized plans to focus more on challenges posed by China.
The president's decision appeared aimed at sending a signal to Islamic republic of iran and its proxies in the region that Washington would not tolerate attacks on its personnel in Iraq, even at a sensitive diplomatic moment.
Three rocket attacks in one week in Republic of iraq, including a deadly strike that hit a U.S.-led coalition base in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil, presented a examination for Biden only weeks after assuming the presidency. The rocket assaults coincided with a diplomatic initiative launched past the administration to endeavour to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement betwixt Islamic republic of iran and world powers.
Kirby said two F-15 fighter jets dropped seven precision guided munitions on buildings used by the Iranian-backed militias, totally destroying nine structures and partially destroying ii. The buildings were located in Abu Kamal, near the Iraqi edge, a location known as a hub for the Iraqi Shiite militias supported by Iran, he said.
"This location is known to facilitate Iranian-aligned militia group activity," Kirby said.
The airstrikes were ordered in response to a series of rocket attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq, "and to ongoing threats to those personnel," the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday evening.
The buildings virtually the edge were used by militias including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, co-ordinate to the Pentagon.
Iranian officials did not immediately react to the strikes.
The Syrian regime condemned the attack Friday, calling information technology "cowardly U.Southward. aggression" in a statement from the land's strange ministry building that was published by state media.
The strikes violate international police and "will lead to consequences that will escalate the situation in the region," the strange ministry said, according to state news agency SANA.
Russia, one of Syrian President Bashar Assad'south main backers, said it was given just four or five minutes' warning before the strikes.
"This kind of notification does nothing when the strike is literally already on its mode," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
The U.S. was operating in Syrian arab republic "illegally," he said, and called for better communication with the Biden assistants.
The Pentagon defended the legality of the strikes, arguing Article 2 of the Constitution grants the president powers as commander in chief, and citing commodity 51 of the U.N. charter, providing countries the correct to "self-defence" in response to an set on.
"I would tell you that the president acted well within his constitutional regime under Article II as commander in chief of the United States to protect American service members involved in operations. Conspicuously, there's a ramble potency here," Kirby told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell on Fri.
The Biden assistants did inform Russian federation in advance of the air raid, Kirby said, but indicated information technology could not do and so also far in advance without jeopardizing "operational security."
The strikes provoked criticism from some Democrats in Congress, who questioned the legal rationale and demanded to know why the White House did not consult with lawmakers more closely beforehand.
"The American people deserve to hear the Administration'south rationale for these strikes and its legal justification for interim without coming to Congress," said Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a member of the Senate Armed services and Foreign Relations Committees.
"Offensive military machine activity without congressional approval is non constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances," he said. "Congress must be fully briefed on this matter expeditiously."
The assistants said officials did cursory congressional leadership before the air strikes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said almost of the 22 people killed in the bombings were members of Iraqi militias. The monitoring grouping did not provide details well-nigh how it obtained that figure but Rami Abdulrahman, head of the rights system, told NBC News it was based on speaking to sources inside Syrian arab republic.
He added that the death toll was expected to rise, due to the number of people seriously wounded.
Iran'south state broadcaster IRIB news, meanwhile, said 17 "resistance fighters" were killed in the strikes, simply also didn't provide detail nearly the source of that effigy other than citing "reports."
A senior U.Due south. defense official told NBC News on Thursday evening that the target was a transit hub near the Iraqi-Syrian border used by the militia fighters, and it was likewise early to say what casualties might have been inflicted on the militants.
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"The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden volition deed to protect American and coalition personnel. At the same fourth dimension, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq," the Pentagon said on Thursday.
Shortly after the strike, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters travelling with him that the assistants had been "very deliberate near our approach."
"Nosotros're confident that target was existence used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes," Austin said, referring to the recent rocket attacks in Iraq on U.S. and coalition personnel.
The Pentagon had said previously that it was awaiting the results of an Iraqi investigation into the Irbil rocket set on.
"We allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence and that was very helpful to us in refining the target," said Austin, who spoke en road to Washington after a visit to California and Colorado.
Biden had canonical the operation on Th morn, he said.
A civilian contractor was killed in the Irbil rocket assail, and a U.S. service member and others were wounded. At to the lowest degree 2 107mm rockets landed on the base, which likewise hosts Irbil's civilian international aerodrome.
NBC News had previously reported that Iranian-backed militias were about likely behind the Irbil rocket attack, and that the weapons and tactics resembled previous attacks by the Iranian-linked militias. However, information technology was unclear if Islamic republic of iran had encouraged or ordered the rocket attack.
An obscure group chosen Saraya Awliya al-Dam, or Custodians of the Blood, claimed responsibility for the Irbil assail. Only former diplomats and regional analysts said the group was simply a front organization created by the main Shiite militias in Iraq.
Post-obit the rocket attack on the Irbil base, Republic of iraq's Balad air base came under rocket fire days later, where a U.S. defense business firm services the land's fighter jets, then 2 rockets landed near the U.S. Embassy chemical compound in Baghdad.
Iran has rejected any connection to the rocket attacks.
In a phone phone call Tuesday between Biden and Iraqi Prime number Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the 2 leaders agreed that "that those responsible for such attacks must be held fully to account," according to a White House readout of the conversation.
Dennis Ross, a one-time senior U.S. diplomat who worked on Middle Eastward policy under several presidents, said the assistants had lowered the risk of causing friction with the Iraqi government by hitting targets in Syrian arab republic.
"By hitting facilities used by the militias simply across the border in Syria, the chance of blowback against the Iraqi gov is reduced," Ross tweeted.
Dan De Luce, Mosheh Gains and Kristen Welker reported from Washington; Ali Arouzi and Adela Suliman reported from London; Amin Hossein Khodadadi reported from Tehran; and Charlene Gubash reported from Cairo.
The Associated Press contributed.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biden-airstrikes-syria-retaliating-against-iran-backed-militias-n1258912
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