The U.S. retaliation was widespread and deep, and was telegraphed five days in advance.
The White House, Pentagon and State Department have spent much of a week discussing how to respond to Sunday’s drone attack on a U.S. military base in northern Jordan that killed three Americans and injured more than 30 people.
They warned that retaliation against the suspects, mainly the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia, would be “multi-layered” and would last for many days, but when the salvoes began in the early hours of Saturday Middle East time, it remained Its scope and scale caused some surprise.
According to U.S. Central Command, more than 125 precision munitions were used, using a combination of drones and long-range B1 bombers flying from U.S. territory, hitting 85 facilities across seven installations, including four in Syria and three in Iraq. goals to showcase the U.S. Air Force.
“Tonight’s attacks in western Iraq and eastern Syria are far larger than any previous action against Iranian proxies – massive secondary explosions on both sides of the border, indicating that large rockets were /Missile depot was attacked.”, said on the social media platform X.
Joe Biden said the targets were facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and “affiliated militias,” making clear that this was just the beginning. A comprehensive response to the attack on Tower 22 will “continue at a time and place of our choosing.”
The limits of the response are as obvious as their size. As expected, no targets were hit on Iranian soil, and senior administration officials made it clear that Iran would not be allowed to conduct any future attacks.
“Our goal is to deter these attacks. We do not want a war with Iran,” said national security spokesman John Kirby.
Meanwhile, the five days following the Tower 22 attack reportedly gave key IRGC officials time to evacuate. The Pentagon said the timing of the attack would be determined by weather. Planners had been waiting for the skies to clear to be absolutely sure of their target so civilian casualties could be kept to a minimum.
As for whether the delay would allow the IRGC to pull its people out of harm’s way, Joint Staff Director of Operations Lt. Gen. Sims noted that militias attacking U.S. targets disperse once their weapons are unleashed. Got fired, so the number of days suspended didn’t make much of a difference. General Sims said the impact of the overnight attacks was to significantly reduce the IRGC’s weapons stockpile.
Overall, the U.S. response is designed to minimize the risk of direct conflict between the U.S. and Iran while maximizing the destruction of Iranian weapons stockpiles in Syria and Iraq.
Notably, three of the targeted facilities were located in Iraq. There is speculation that U.S. planners may avoid doing so because Baghdad’s permission to keep American troops engaged in the pursuit of Islamic State is under review following previous U.S. attacks on Iraqi territory.
The White House said the United States notified Baghdad before the attack; nonetheless, an Iraqi military spokesman said it was “a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and an insult to the government.”
While the risk of war with Iran is clearly a red line in this response plan, the risk of further complicating relations with Baghdad is clearly not an obstacle. The U.S. assessment is that the Iraqi government will ultimately rely on U.S. soldiers to contain the Islamic State.
