The U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias on Friday, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend, officials told The Associated Press.
President Joe Biden and other top U.S. leaders have been warning for days that the U.S. would strike back at the militias, and they made it clear that it wouldn’t be just one hit, but would be a “tiered response” over time. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations not yet made public.
The initial strikes by manned and unmanned aircraft struck command and control headquarters, ammunition storage and other facilities and came just hours after Biden and top defence leaders joined grieving families to watch as the remains of the three army reserve soldiers were returned to the U.S. at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
It was unclear what the next steps will be, or whether the days of U.S. warnings had sent militia members scattering into hiding, making it more difficult for the U.S. to detect and strike them. But it was evident that the recent statement released by Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the main Iran-backed militias, saying it was suspending attacks on American troops had no impact on the administration’s plans to strike back.
Another of the major Iran-backed groups, Harakat al-Nujaba, vowed Friday to continue military operations against U.S. troops.
The U.S. strikes also appeared to stop short of directly targeting Iran or its Revolutionary Guard Quds force. Iran has denied it was behind the Jordan strike.
Three soldiers were killed in an overnight drone strike targeting U.S. troops near the Syrian border. President Joe Biden has vowed to retaliate, adding to fears of an escalated conflict in the Middle East.
The U.S. has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the deadly attack in Jordan, but has not yet narrowed it down to a specific group. Kataeb Hezbollah is, however, a top suspect.
‘Dangerous moment in the Middle East’
Some of the militias have been a threat to U.S. bases for years, but the groups have intensified their assaults amid Israel’s war with Hamas. Iran-backed militia groups throughout the region have used the conflict to justify striking Israeli or U.S. interests, including threatening civilian commercial ships and U.S. warships with drones or missiles in almost daily exchanges.
As of Tuesday, Iran-backed militia groups had launched 166 attacks on U.S. military installations since Oct. 18, including 67 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and now one in Jordan, according to a U.S. military official. The last attack was on Monday at at al-Asad airbase in Iraq, and there were no injuries or damage.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said this is “a dangerous moment in the Middle East.”
He added, “We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people. And we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose.”
The U.S., meanwhile, has bolstered defences at the base in Jordan that was attacked on Sunday, according to a U.S. official.
The Israeli military said its Arrow defence system intercepted a missile that approached the country from the Red Sea, raising suspicion it was launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The rebels, allied with Hamas and supported by Iran, did not immediately claim responsibility.
A U.S. official also said the military had taken additional self-defence strikes inside Yemen on Friday against Houthi military targets deemed an imminent threat. Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said that British and American forces conducted three strikes in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah, a Houthi stronghold.
While previous U.S. responses in Iraq and Syria have been more limited, the attack on Tower 22, as the Jordan outpost is known, and the deaths of the three service members has crossed a line, the official said.
That drone attack, which also injured more than 40 service members — largely army national guard — was the first to result in U.S. combat deaths from the Iran-backed militias since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. Tower 22 houses about 350 U.S. troops and sits near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is only 10 kilometres away.