U.S. forces on Friday unleashed a wave of major retaliatory airstrikes against Iran‘s elite Quds Force units and Iran-backed militias across Iraq and Syria, officials said, finally firing back a week after an attack killed three American service members in Jordan.
U.S. Central Command said the first round of strikes hit dozens of targets, including command and control headquarters, ammunition storage, intelligence centers, and other sites used by the Quds Force, a wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and militias associated with the Iranian military. The militias are believed to be responsible for the attack on U.S. troops, which also injured 40 service members.
CENTCOM said the U.S. struck more than 85 targets at seven different facilities in a well-coordinated operation. More than 125 precision munitions were used, Pentagon officials said, with some long-range bombers flown from the U.S. to the Middle East to take part in the long-awaited American counterattack.
Four of the seven locations were in Syria, with the remaining three in Iraq. The sites targeted are holding locations for munitions that have been used against U.S. troops in the Middle East, said Lt. Gen. Douglas Smith, director for operations of the Joint Staff.
The number of casualties, if any, remained unknown as of Friday evening.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the attacks “significantly degraded” the striking capabilities of the groups targeted in the raid.
The initial round of American strikes on Friday did not target sites in Iran, underscoring President Biden’s reluctance to escalate the clash with Iranian proxies into a full-fledged war that could engulf the Middle East. Iran has denied any link to the deadly attack on U.S. forces in Jordan.
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In a statement, Mr. Biden made clear that the American counterstrike is only beginning.
“This afternoon, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack U.S. forces,” he said. “Our response began today. It 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,” the president said. “But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
Speaking with reporters, Mr. Kirby repeatedly underscored that more strikes are coming.
“These responses began tonight. They’re not going to end tonight,” he said.
Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi Republican and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, applauded the fact that the U.S. responded, but said so far all the administration has done is give Iran a “slap on the wrist.”
“Iran and its proxies have tried to kill American soldiers and sink our warships 165 times while the Biden administration congratulates itself for doing the bare minimum,” he said in a statement. “The Biden administration spent nearly a week foolishly telegraphing U.S. intentions to our adversaries, giving them time to relocate and hide. It is past time for our commander-in-chief to adopt a new approach that targets the actual sponsors of terrorism in the region.”
The U.S. attacks Friday appear to be targeting groups such as Kata’ib Hezbollah, a militia responsible for continued assaults on American troops over a period of years.
In a separate bulletin, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that six members of the Iranian militias, including at least three non-Syrian nationals, had been killed and four others wounded in strikes near the Al-Haidariya area in the Al-Mayadeen Desert.
The “anonymous” warplanes “carried out four rounds of airstrikes on positions of the Iranian militias in Deir Ezzor, three of which took place in Al-Mayadeen and one in Al-Bokamal, while the scout and surveillance planes are still flying over the region,” the watchdog group said in its report.
Over just the past few months, Kata’ib Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militias have launched more than 150 attacks against U.S. troops in the Middle East. Those attacks have grown more frequent and more deadly since Oct. 7, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas — also financially and logistically backed by Iran — launched its own massive terrorist attack on Israel.
The U.S. is also routinely clashing with Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have launched nearly 40 attacks on commercial shipping vessels and American military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Oct. 7.
The U.S. has fired back on Iran-backed militias across Syria and Iraq before. But the deadly attack in Jordan last Sunday was a game-changer for Mr. Biden, and the Pentagon signaled this week that the looming U.S. response would be more intense than anything seen recently.
In the Jan. 28 attack, U.S. officials said that an enemy drone pierced the defenses at a small military installation in Jordan known as Tower 22.
The drone may have been confused with an American drone returning to the base, sparking confusion and allowing the enemy craft to slip by. In addition to the three deaths, dozens of U.S. service members were wounded.
• Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.