by According to the Pentagon, U.S. warplanes destroyed or severely damaged most of the Iranian and militia targets they struck in Syria and Iraq on Friday, the first major salvos in what President Biden and his aides have said will be a sustained campaign.
Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday that “more than 80” of about 85 targets in Syria and Iraq were destroyed or rendered inoperable. The targets, he said, included command centers; intelligence centers; depots for rockets, missiles and attack drones; as well as logistics and ammunition bunkers.
It was the first military assessment of strikes carried out in response to a drone attack in Jordan by an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq on Jan. 28 that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded at least 40 other members. from service.
“This is the beginning of our response and additional measures will be taken,” General Ryder told reporters without elaborating. “We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, but attacks on American forces will not be tolerated.”
But the assessment also shows the limits of the US campaign so far. In particular, US officials acknowledge that the targeted militias still retain most of their capacity to carry out future attacks.
There were no initial indications that Iranian advisers were killed in Friday’s strikes, military officials said, but General Ryder said there were likely casualties. Syria and Iraq have said that at least 39 people (23 in Syria and 16 in Iraq) were killed in Friday’s attacks, a figure the Iraqi government said included civilians.
The attacks in the two countries, as well as the US-led strikes on Saturday against 36 Houthi targets in northern Yemen, have brought the region closer to a broader conflict, even as the administration insists it does not want a war with Iran. Instead, U.S. officials say they are focused on reducing the militias’ formidable arsenals and deterring additional attacks on U.S. troops as well as merchant ships in the Red Sea.
However, the militias do not seem fazed. Hours after Friday’s attacks, an Iranian-backed militia fired two rockets at a U.S. military outpost in northeastern Syria, where troops are helping eradicate the remnants of the Islamic State. On Sunday, an explosive-laden drone was fired at another US outpost in northeastern Syria. The rockets caused no damage or injuries to Americans, the Pentagon said. On Sunday, the military’s Central Command said U.S. forces destroyed five Houthi land-based and anti-ship cruise missiles that posed an imminent threat.
On Monday, U.S. forces carried out an attack on two explosive-laden naval drones that Central Command said posed an imminent threat to ships in the region.
In total, Iranian-backed militias have carried out at least 166 drone, rocket and missile attacks against US troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel. The Houthis have carried out at least three dozen attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The militia says its attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Experts and national security officials say privately that to truly degrade the capabilities of Shiite militias, the United States would have to conduct a year-long campaign similar to the six-year effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. . Even then, officials say, the militias, backed by Iran, could probably survive longer than the Islamic State, which was pressured by the United States and Iran, and even Russia.
U.S. officials warned over the weekend and on Monday that more attacks were coming in what is emerging as a long-running campaign not only in Yemen – where the United States and Britain first launched major retaliatory strikes on 11 January – but now also in Yemen. Syria and Iraq to avenge the deaths of three army reservists, who were killed at a remote supply base.
“The president was clear when he ordered them and when he carried them out that this was the beginning of our response and there will be more steps to come,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on “State of the Union.” on CNN on January 1. Sunday, talking about the attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Sullivan said he did not want to “telegraph our blows” by revealing details of future actions. But he said the goal was to punish those who attack Americans without triggering a direct confrontation with Iran.
Analysts say there are already signs that the latest attacks are having an impact in Tehran, where a widely unpopular government already struggling with a weak economy, outbreaks of mass protests and terrorism has little appetite for an all-out war with the United States.
But regional specialists say controlling Iran’s proxies, who depend on Tehran for weapons, intelligence and financing, may prove more difficult.
“Around 2020, Iran began giving these groups blanket authorization to attack U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., retired head of U.S. Central Command, said on the program. CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “They have the opportunity to generate these attacks without turning directly to Iran.”
An important question for Biden and his national security advisers is what additional targets could be struck in Iraq and Syria.
On Friday, B-1B bombers and other U.S. fighter jets struck targets at four sites in Syria and three sites in Iraq in a 30-minute strike, U.S. officials said. John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the targets at each site were chosen because they were linked to specific attacks on U.S. troops in the region and to avoid civilian casualties.
By avoiding targets in Iran, the White House and Central Command are trying to send a message of deterrence while controlling escalation, US officials said. It is clear from statements from the White House and Tehran that neither side wants a broader war. But, as the attack in Jordan demonstrated, any military action carries the potential for miscalculation.
Helen Cooper contributed with reports.
