US carries out retaliatory strikes against Iranian allies as war intensifies

The United States carried out a series of military strikes against Iranian forces and the militias they support in seven locations in Syria and Iraq on Friday, marking a sharp escalation of the war in the Middle East that the Biden administration has tried for four months to avoid .

The airstrikes, targeting command and control operations, intelligence centers, weapons facilities and bunkers used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and affiliated militia groups, fulfilled President Biden's pledge to respond to a drone strike in Jordan on Sunday which killed three Americans. soldiers and injured at least 40 more soldiers.

The military action was also intended to send a message to Iran and the militias it backs that continued attacks on US forces in the region and commercial ships in the Red Sea would provoke a response.

The strikes hit more than 85 targets in various locations and used more than 125 precision-guided munitions, according to a statement from US Central Command.

“Last Sunday, three American soldiers were killed in Jordan by a drone launched by militant groups backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” President Biden said in a statement. “Our response started today.”

Mr Biden approved 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 attack on a remote outpost in Jordan. Middle East analysts said many Revolutionary Guard trainers, fearing they could be hit, returned to Iran this week while militia leaders were in hiding.

But U.S. officials made clear that Friday evening's attacks would be followed by more attacks in the coming days, weeks and perhaps even months. Two US officials said the United States also carried out cyber operations against Iranian targets on Friday, but declined to provide details.

The U.S. response, Biden said in his statement 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 wants to harm us know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”

U.S. bombers hit targets at four locations in Syria and three locations in Iraq during 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 at each location were chosen because they were linked to specific attacks on US forces in the region, and to avoid civilian casualties. He said he did not know whether Iranians or militiamen were killed or injured in the attack.

The goal of the attacks, Kirby said, was to “remove the ability” of the militias to continue attacking U.S. forces. “This wasn't just a messaging routine tonight.”

By avoiding targets in Iran, the White House and Central Command are trying to send a message of deterrence while containing escalation. Statements from the White House and Tehran make it clear that neither the United States nor Iran want a broader war. But as the strike in Jordan has shown, with any military action there is the potential for miscalculation.

The Biden administration carried out what officials called a “layered” response, hitting multiple targets from the air. The Pentagon deployed two American B-1B bombers, which took off from Dyess Air Base in Texas early Friday and made a flight of more than 9,000 kilometers to deliver their payload of munitions from the skies over Iraq and Syria.

Sending B1-B bombers from U.S. soil had several advantages, officials said. The B-1Bs can carry dozens of precision munitions, allowing commanders in the region to keep their land-based and carrier-based attack aircraft in reserve for follow-on strikes, a U.S. official said. Middle Eastern countries hosting U.S. attack aircraft are increasingly reluctant to use their bases for offensive strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen to avoid being perceived as supporting Israel. High-profile locations in the Middle East with aircraft launched from the United States and refueled in mid-air are a powerful 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, director of the Army's Joint Staff, told reporters Friday evening.

Officials said the strike was timed for clear weather. Although the army can strike when there is cloud cover, a clear evening provides more confidence.

General Sims said that as soon as daylight broke in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, military analysts would closely examine the affected targets. But he said the Pentagon was confident the bombers had hit “exactly what they wanted to hit.” Secondary explosions showed the air force planes hitting the ammunition depots they were targeting, he said.

In a statement later Friday, Iraqi Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasool called the U.S. action in Iraq “unacceptable” and “a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”

With Friday's strikes, the government entered a new phase in its efforts to contain the spreading conflict, which began on October 7 when the militant group Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people.

Israel's retaliation has since killed more than 26,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Mr. Biden and his top aides have been cautious about taking steps that could draw the United States into a broader war in an already hugely volatile 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 either.” And Kata'ib Hezbollah, one of the groups U.S. officials say may be responsible for the attack, made the surprise announcement Tuesday that it is suspending military operations in Iraq, where it operates. But the Revolutionary Guard leader also warned that Iran was prepared to respond if attacked.

With the latest strikes, that possibility is getting closer. Administration officials said Biden had little choice but to strike back after the attack in Jordan killed the three U.S. soldiers, especially as their deaths came amid a steady stream of attacks from Iran-backed groups such as the Houthis in Yemen and Kata'ib Hezbollah. in Iraq. And now experts say there are real fears that Iran could become further involved in the fighting.

Biden is 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 strikes allowed Iranian and militia commanders and advisers to flee.

“The Biden administration spent nearly a week foolishly telegraphing American intentions to our adversaries, 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 wide-ranging series of attacks aimed at damaging or destroying the ability of Iran-backed militias to launch missiles, drones and attack drones on U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan 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 Tuesday that it was “quite possible” that the United States would take “not just a single action, but potentially multiple actions over a period of time.”

The B-1B bombers were in the air 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. Their remains arrived Friday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The Army Reserve said this week that it had posthumously promoted Specialists Moffett and Sanders to sergeant, and Sergeant Rivers to staff sergeant.