US attacks Iran-linked facility in Syria in round of retaliation

For the second time in nearly two weeks, the United States carried out airstrikes early Thursday on a facility used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its allies in eastern Syria. Iraq and Syria.

The attacks by two Air Force F-15E jets on a weapons cache came after U.S. airstrikes on October 27 on similar targets in eastern Syria failed to deter Iran or its allies in Syria and Iraq, prompting the Biden administration blames for the attacks. .

Not only have the attacks continued — there have been at least 22 more since last month’s U.S. retaliatory strikes — but Pentagon officials said they have become more dangerous. Iranian-backed militias have packed even larger loads of explosives — more than 80 pounds — into drones launched at U.S. bases, U.S. officials said.

“This precision self-defense strike is in response to a series of attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by members of the IRGC and the Quds Force,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement. “The President has no higher priority than the safety of America’s personnel, and he led today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.”

“The United States is fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities,” he added. “We urge any escalation.”

The attacks came after the Pentagon said a US military MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone was shot down off the coast of Yemen on Wednesday by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The downing of the drone, the mainstay of the US military’s aerial surveillance fleet, marked a new escalation of violence between the United States and Iranian-backed groups in the region. The episode underscored the risk that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas could degenerate into a broader war.

Biden administration officials have been trying to calculate how to stop Iran-backed Shiite militias from attacking U.S. forces in the region without sparking that broader conflict, said three administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning to discuss.

“The attacks, the threats coming from militias linked to Iran, are completely unacceptable,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in Iraq on Sunday.

The Pentagon said Wednesday that there have been at least 41 attacks on U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq since Oct. 17 and that at least 46 U.S. service members have been injured, 25 of whom suffered traumatic brain injuries. The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria, mainly to help local forces fight the remnants of Islamic State.

During target-selection meetings, U.S. officials are trying to figure out what response each attack will produce, one official said. Military officials at the Pentagon’s Central Command and the U.S. intelligence community have a good idea where many militia leaders are located, two officials said, and have spent the past two weeks considering the potential blowback if targeted airstrikes kill those leaders.

The attempt to calibrate retaliation is imprecise, officials acknowledged.

The Biden administration is also using a “deconfliction line” with Russia to manage the escalation in Iraq and Syria, two officials said. Russia has troops in Syria, and U.S. officials say they expect telling Russia before an attack in Syria is like telling Iran, as Russian officials often brief Tehran about what will happen.

Since Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, President Biden and his aides have tried to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from turning into a regional conflict with Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

To that end, the United States has deployed one aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel and another aircraft carrier now in the Red Sea towards the south, as well as dozens of additional fighter jets to the Persian Gulf region. The Pentagon has also sent additional Patriot anti-missile batteries and other air defense systems to several Gulf states to protect U.S. troops and bases in the region.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly pledged to destroy Israel and repel US forces from the region, and the leaders of militant groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gaza view Mr Khamenei as a powerful ally, who often seeks his advice and consults with him on strategic issues.

Despite the often fiery rhetoric from Tehran, U.S. officials believe Israel’s opponents are not seeking a broader war.

“We believe that Iran, Hezbollah and their associated allies are trying to calibrate their activities, avoiding actions that would open a coordinated second front with the United States or Israel, while still exacting costs in the midst of the current conflict,” says Christine S. Abizaid, the leader of the National Center for Counterterrorism, told a Senate panel last week. “This is a very fine line to walk.”