US warplanes destroyed or severely damaged most of the Iranian and militia targets they struck in Syria and Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon said, the first major strike in what President Biden and his aides said were it will be an ongoing campaign.
Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday that “more than 80” of the roughly 85 targets in Syria and Iraq had been destroyed or rendered inactive. The targets, he said, include command hubs. intelligence centers; depots for missiles, rockets and attack drones; as well as logistics and ammunition depots.
It was the first military assessment of the raids carried out in response to a drone attack in Jordan by an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq on January 28 that killed three American soldiers and wounded at least 40 other military personnel.
“This is the beginning of our response and additional measures will be taken,” General Ryder told reporters without elaborating. “We are not seeking conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, but attacks on American forces will not be tolerated.”
But the assessment also shows the limits of the American campaign so far. Notably, US officials acknowledge that the targeted militias still retain most of their ability to carry out future attacks.
There were no initial indications that Iranian advisers were killed in the raids on Friday, military officials said, but General Ryder said there were likely casualties. Syria and Iraq said at least 39 people — 23 in Syria and 16 in Iraq — were killed in Friday’s strikes, a toll the Iraqi government said included civilians.
The attacks in the two countries, as well as US-led strikes on Saturday against 36 Houthi targets in northern Yemen, have brought the region closer to a wider conflict, even as the government insists it does not want war with Iran. Instead, US officials say they are focused on neutralizing the militias’ formidable arsenals and preventing additional attacks on US troops as well as merchant ships in the Red Sea.
However, the militias seem undeterred. Hours after the strikes on Friday, an Iranian-backed militia fired two rockets at a US military outpost in northeastern Syria, where troops are helping eliminate remnants of Islamic State. On Sunday, an explosives-laden drone was launched at another US outpost in northeastern Syria. The missiles did not damage or injure Americans, the Pentagon said. On Sunday, the military’s Central Command said U.S. forces destroyed five land-based cruise missiles against Houthi ships that posed an immediate threat.
In total, Iranian-backed militias have carried out at least 166 drone, rocket and missile attacks against US troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel. The Houthis have carried out at least three dozen attacks against ships in the Red Sea and 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 degrade the capability of Shiite militias, the United States would need to mount a multi-year campaign similar to the six-year effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Even then, officials say, the militias, backed by Iran, could probably outlast the Islamic State, which has been pressured by the United States and Iran and even Russia.
US officials over the weekend and on Monday warned that more strikes are in store in an open-ended campaign, not only in Yemen — where the United States and Britain first launched major retaliation on Jan. 11 — but now in Syria and Iraq for to avenge the deaths of three Army reservists killed at a remote supply base.
“The president was clear when he ordered them and when he conducted them that this was the beginning of our response and there will be more steps,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union.” Sunday, talking about the strikes in Iraq and Syria.
Mr Sullivan said he did not want to “wire our fists” by revealing details of future actions. But he said the goal was to punish those targeting Americans without starting a direct confrontation with Iran.
Analysts say there are already signs the latest strikes are having an impact in Tehran, where a widely 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 easing Iran’s proxies, who rely on Tehran for weapons, intelligence and funding, may prove more difficult.
“Around 2020, Iran began to give blanket permission to these groups to attack United States positions in Iraq and Syria,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., retired head of the U.S. Central Command, said in the broadcast CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sundays. “They have an opportunity to set up these attacks without going directly back to Iran.”
A major question for Mr. Biden and his national security aides is what additional targets in Iraq and Syria could be struck.
On Friday, US B-1B bombers and other warplanes struck targets at four sites in Syria and three sites in Iraq in a 30-minute strike, US 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 US 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, US officials said. It is clear from statements from the White House and Tehran that neither side wants a wider war. But as the strike in Jordan showed, with any military action there is the potential for miscalculation.
Helen Cooper contributed to the report.
