American warplanes destroyed or heavily damaged most of the targets of Iranians and militias they attacked in Syria and Iraq on Friday. According to the Pentagon, these were the first major salvos in an ongoing campaign that President Biden and his aides have said they will attack.
Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday that “more than 80” of about 85 targets in Syria and Iraq had been destroyed or disabled. 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 the attacks carried out in response to a Jan. 28 drone strike in Jordan by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq that killed three American soldiers and injured at least 40 other soldiers.
“This is the beginning of our response and further action will be taken,” Gen. Ryder told reporters, without elaborating. “We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or elsewhere, but attacks on American forces will not be tolerated.”
But the assessment also shows the limits of the American election campaign to date. In particular, U.S. officials acknowledge that the militias under attack still retain much of their capability to carry out future attacks.
There were no initial indications that Iranian advisers were killed in Friday’s attacks, military officials said, but General Ryder said there were likely casualties. Syria and Iraq said Friday’s attacks killed at least 39 people – 23 in Syria and 16 in Iraq – including civilians, the Iraqi government said.
The attacks in the two countries, as well as U.S.-led attacks on 36 Houthi targets in northern Yemen on Saturday, have pushed the region closer to wider conflict, even as the government insists it does not want war with Iran. Instead, U.S. officials say they are focused on curtailing the militias’ formidable arsenals and deterring further attacks on U.S. troops and merchant ships in the Red Sea.
However, the militias appear undeterred. Hours after Friday’s attacks, an Iran-backed militia fired two rockets at a U.S. military outpost in northeastern Syria, where troops are helping to eradicate the remnants of the Islamic State. On Sunday, an explosives-laden drone was fired at another US outpost in northeastern Syria. The missiles caused no damage or American injuries, the Pentagon said. On Sunday, the military’s central command said U.S. forces had destroyed five Houthi land-based and anti-ship cruise missiles that posed an imminent threat.
In total, Iran-backed militias have carried out at least 166 drone, missile and rocket attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since the Oct. 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 the Gulf of Aden. The militia says its attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.
National security experts and officials say privately that to truly weaken the capabilities of Shiite militias, the United States would need to wage a years-long campaign similar to the six-year effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Even then, officials say, with Iran’s support, the militias could likely survive longer than the Islamic State, which has been pressured by the United States, Iran and even Russia.
American officials warned over the weekend and on Monday that more attacks were coming as part of an open-ended campaign not only in Yemen – where the United States and Britain first launched major retaliatory strikes on January 11 – but now also in Syria and Iraq Avenge the deaths of three Army reservists killed at a remote supply base.
“The president made it clear when he ordered it and when he carried it out that this was the beginning of our response and that further steps will follow,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” . On Sunday he spoke about the attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Mr. Sullivan said he did not want to “demonstrate our punches” by revealing details of future actions. But he said the goal was to punish those who targeted Americans without triggering a direct confrontation with Iran.
Analysts say there are already signs that the latest attacks are having an impact on Tehran, where a largely unpopular government already struggling with a weak economy, mass protests and terrorism has little appetite for an all-out war with the United States.
But regional experts say it may prove more difficult to contain Iranian proxies who rely on Tehran for weapons, intelligence and funding.
“Around 2020, Iran began giving these groups blanket authorization to attack U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a retired U.S. Central Command chief, said on CBS. “Face the Nation” program. Sunday. “They have the ability to carry out these attacks without returning directly to Iran.”
A key question for Mr. Biden and his national security advisers is what additional targets could be attacked in Iraq and Syria.
On Friday, American B-1B bombers and other 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 against 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, U.S. officials said. Statements from the White House and Tehran make it clear that neither side wants a major war. But as the attack in Jordan showed, every military action carries the risk of misjudgment.
Helene Cooper contributed reporting.
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2024-02-05 22:58:22
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