The military of the U.S. on Thursday did an airstrike at a site in Syria using two Iranian backed militia groups responding to the rocket attacks on the forces of America in the area in the previous two week.
The strikes have been assumed to nullify a handful of militants as told by a U.S. official.
Air Strikes By America That Shook Syria
These strikes are the first known action which was taken by President Joe Biden and it also marks the first military action taken by the President in this decade. But this action swiftly drew criticism as well from the Democratic lawmaker. That site which was under attack didn’t specifically belong to the group who did the rocket attacks as said by the Democrats. The Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin stated that he was confident that it was the same place as used by the Iranian backed Shia militias who have fired those rockets at the U.S. and other coalition forces.
The spokesperson of the Pentagon John Kirby said that these strikes have taken place at President Joe Biden’s order. They were given enough authority to not only to respond to the recent attacks against America but also dealing with the ongoing threats to the military of the U.S. and also the coalition forces.
These strikes, specifically, were done to destroy the multiple structures which were located at a border control point which are used by Iranian-backed militant groups which also includes Kata’ib Sayyid al Shuhada and Kata’ib Hezbollah as said by Kirby. This operation also sends a direct message to the that President Biden will be acting in all possible ways to protect the American coalition personnel. At the same time, the team has acted deliberately that will de-escalate the whole situation in both areas – Iraq and Syria.
This site which was struck by the U.S. on Thursday is believed to be used for suspicious activities like militias smuggling operations as per the U.S. official. The strikes have been conducted to degrade the ability of the groups to carry out any such attacks and to send a message that if such activity is repeated, America will retaliate.
Decision was made with the ‘top down’ approach
The decision for targeting Syria was made from the ‘top down’ as said by a defence official. Austin has told the group of reporters that Biden had already authorised the decision of an airstrike on Thursday morning. It was taken after the officials recommended President Joe Biden to take action.
We were quite confident about the target we wanted to strike. Prior research was already done. This was said by Austin on his flight back from San Diego to Washington on Thursday. We know the target we wanted to hit. Then we encouraged Iraq to develop intelligence and investigate. This was quite helpful for them in refining and locking the target.
Kirby said that Biden has authorised these strikes after having a consultation with the U.S. allies that also included the coalition allies and that the operation would take place at around 6 p.m. ET.
A U.S. strike against terrorists like Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq on 29 December triggered complaints from the Iraqi gov. about these violations of sovereignty. Days after, members of this group and other Iran backed militants in the U.S. Embassy in Iraq damaging property and setting the outskirts of the buildings on fire.
While the U.S. had not blamed any specific group on Thursday for these rocket attacks or stated any connection to the Iranian proxies in any region, the administration had already made clear where the blame goes.
With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.