Biden: US strike in Syria was ‘be careful’ warning to Iran

Bloomberg

President Joe Biden said US airstrikes in Syria that killed militants linked to Iran were a warning to the Islamic Republic to be cautious as its proxies challenge American allies in the Mideast.
Asked while visiting a National Guard vaccination site in Houston what message the strike was intended to send to Iran, Biden said: “You can’t act with impunity. Be careful.”
At least 22 Iraqi militants allied with Iran were killed and three ammunition trucks were destroyed in the attack, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers information from a network of activists on the ground in Syria.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US destroyed nine facilities and damaged two others.
The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that the attack sent a “negative indication about the new US administration’s policy” and that such attacks could escalate tensions in the region. Meantime, Biden’s administration found itself on the defense against Democrats who demanded a public explanation and legal justification for the action.

Pentagon defends Syria Strikes
The Biden administration defended its decision to carry out airstrikes in eastern Syria overnight, saying the sites it hit are connected to Iranian-backed groups believed to be involved in recent attacks in Iraq.
“We’re confident that these were legitimate targets utilised by groups associated with these recent attacks,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a briefing. The strikes sent an “unambiguous message” that “we will defend ourselves, that we will protect our interests. We are certainly going to act to defend our people.”
Even so, the US strikes prompted debate among American lawmakers over the first overt use of military force under President Joe Biden.
The assault came after a series of rocket attacks in recent days on facilities in Iraq used by the US, including one that killed a contractor working with the US-led coalition in the country.
Biden acted under his constitutional authority to defend US personnel and deter the risk of additional attacks, according to a National Security Council aide who commented on condition of anonymity.
Kirby said two F-15E Strike Eagles dropped seven precision-guided munitions, “totally destroying nine facilities and partially destroying two facilities, making them functionally destroyed.”
“These strikes were authorised in response to recent attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” Kirby said in a statement Thursday night. “The strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kait’ib Hezbollah and Kait’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.”
After a decade of civil war, Syria’s military is not in a strong position to respond directly to a US attack. The country faced two attacks by the US military during former President Donald Trump’s tenure, both over President Bashar Al Assad’s use of chemical weapons in the conflict.
Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that the “strikes were the correct, proportionate response to protect American lives, and I look forward to more information on the administration’s response to Iran’s aggression.” Other Republicans echoed his approval.
But some Democrats voiced opposition or wanted more details. “This makes President Biden the seventh consecutive US president to order strikes in the Middle East,” Representative Ro Khanna of California said in a statement. “There is absolutely no justification for a president to authorise a military strike that is not in self-defense against an imminent threat without congressional authorisation.”
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has long argued that presidents need to seek approval from lawmakers for most military operations, said in a statement that “the American people deserve to hear the administration’s rationale for these strikes and its legal justification for acting without coming to Congress.”
“I get nervous anytime we bomb anyone,” said House Rules Committee chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. “I hope it doesn’t escalate.”
The Defense Department briefed congressional leaders before the strikes, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Administration officials have been briefing individual lawmakers and their staffs and will hold a “full classified briefing early next week at the latest,” she said.
Biden acted under his constitutional authority to defend US personnel and deter the risk of additional attacks, according to a National Security Council aide who commented on condition of anonymity.

By hitting a facility in Syria, the US avoids raising tensions that would come with a direct strike on Iran, which the Biden administration is seeking to persuade to return to the 2015 nuclear deal Trump abandoned three years ago. It also avoids a US strike inside Iraq, which would have caused embarrassment for the fragile US-allied government in Baghdad.
“The operation sends an unambiguous message,” Kirby said Thursday night. “President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq.”
The US launched the strike one day after Biden spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. The two leaders “discussed the recent rocket attacks against Iraqi and coalition personnel and agreed that those responsible for such attacks must be held fully to account,” the White House said in a statement.