“If the strikes were against militias that were using U.A.V.s to attack American personnel, that would be a conventional self-defense action that is justified. “Congress must be briefed on these airstrikes without delay,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who has led the fight to limit presidential war powers for a decade from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kirby and other administration officials characterized the strikes as defensive, but leading lawmakers demanded more details on Sunday. American officials said the militias used the sites targeted in Syria mainly for storage and logistics purposes the site hit in Iraq was used to launch and recover the armed drones, which officials said were either made in Iran or used Iranian technology. The fighter-bombers dropped multiple bombs - 500-pound and 2,000-pound satellite-guided munitions - on each of the three structures. Monday local time by a mix of Air Force F-16s and F-15Es based in the region. retaliation.Īmerican officials said the strikes - against two targets in eastern Syria and a third just across the border in Iraq - were carried out about 1 a.m. Iraqi and American officials say Iran has devised the drone attacks to minimize casualties to avoid prompting U.S. Iran - weakened by years of harsh economic sanctions - is using its proxy militias in Iraq to step up pressure on the United States and other world powers to negotiate an easing of those sanctions as part of a possible revival of the 2015 nuclear deal. The drones are part of a rapidly evolving threat from Iranian proxies in Iraq, with militia forces specialized in operating more sophisticated weaponry hitting some of the most sensitive American targets in attacks that evaded U.S. So far, no Americans have been hurt in the attacks, but officials worry about the precision of the drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles, or U.A.V.s. Special Operations units, according to American officials. troops in Iraq who are training and advising Iraqi forces.Īt least five times since April, the Iranian-backed militias have used small, explosive-laden drones that divebomb and crash into their targets in late-night attacks on Iraqi bases - including those used by the C.I.A. Biden’s top advisers and commanders, to retaliate against the threat posed by the drones to American diplomats and the 2,500 U.S. Pressure has been building for weeks from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and from some of Mr. Raisi, a close ally of the clerical government’s supreme leader, as its top elected official. Blinken discussed the negotiations on the nuclear deal with Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, who said Israel had “serious reservations” about the accord, which would ease sanctions on Iran in return for limits on its nuclear program.Įarlier this month, the Biden administration blocked access to myriad websites linked to Iran after the nation held a presidential vote to install Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018, and Mr. The military action also came as the negotiations intended to bring the United States and Tehran back into compliance with an international nuclear accord have reached a crucial juncture. The strikes were carried out a little more than a week after Iran elected a hard-liner, Ebrahim Raisi, as its next president. Biden approved striking the three targets, the officials said. Biden on attack options early last week, and Mr. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed Mr. Pentagon planners have been gathering information for weeks on the sites and militia networks that use them, American officials said on Sunday. Air Force fighter-bombers based in the region. The latest strikes were carried out by U.S. The United States carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria in late February against buildings belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militias responsible for attacks against American and allied personnel in Iraq. Biden has ordered the use of force in the region. The strikes were the second time that Mr. There were no immediate reports of casualties but a military after-action review is ongoing, Pentagon officials said. Kirby said the facilities were used by Iranian-backed militias, including Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, to store arms and ammunition for carrying out attacks against places where Americans were located in Iraq. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region,” the Pentagon spokesman, John F. WASHINGTON - The United States carried out airstrikes early Monday morning in Iraq and Syria against two Iranian-backed militias that the Pentagon said had conducted drone strikes against American personnel in Iraq in recent weeks, the Defense Department said.
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