Retaliation for a drone strike that killed three US soldiers in Jordan last weekend has begun: The US military launched major airstrikes on 85 targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday.
The White House declared the operation successful, which lasted about 30 minutes, but few details were immediately available about the damage and any deaths or injuries on the ground. A Pentagon official said casualties were expected.
US officials say the strikes hit four facilities in Syria and three in Iraq, with security officials reporting damage in the city of Al-Qaim. The sites allegedly belong to various Iranian-backed militias, which the United States holds responsible for the strike in Jordan.
Here’s what you need to know:
The strikes were retaliatory, and came with a warning: The deadly drone strike in Jordan was the latest in a series of more than 165 attacks on US forces in the Middle East by various groups affiliated with Iran since the outbreak of the current war between Israel and Hamas.
US President Joe Biden said that the strikes prove that his administration will not tolerate harm to Americans. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged that the attack was just “the beginning of our response.” The two men said that American retaliation would continue “at times and places of our choosing.”
Biden seeks a delicate balance: The US government is threading a needle – it wants to deter further attacks on its forces while avoiding a full-scale conflict with Iran.
The Jordanian attack came after weeks of efforts by the United States and regional leaders to prevent a broader war in the Middle East, even as conflicts involving Tehran’s proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, spread.
B-1 bombers played a major role in the attack: A defense official told CNN that Air Force B-1 bombers were among the US aircraft that carried out the strikes. The B-1 is a long-range heavy bomber that can deploy both precise and imprecise weapons.
The bomber crews headed to the region from the United States on one non-stop flight, according to Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims. The Army is confident it “hit exactly what we intended to hit,” Sims said, praising the accuracy of the B-1 bomber crews.
The United States warned Iraq, but not Iran: National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the United States informed the Iraqi government of its plans before carrying out the strikes. However, he said there had been no communications – back channels or otherwise – with Iran since the attack on Jordan.
The United States does not plan to strike inside Iran: A senior Biden administration official told CNN that the United States will not strike inside Iran, but will focus only on targets outside the country. A strike inside Iran would have been a major escalation, and officials have telegraphed that that was unlikely to happen.
