{"id":228638,"date":"2021-02-28T08:37:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T08:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=228638"},"modified":"2021-03-02T07:28:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T07:28:41","slug":"biden-warns-iran-to-be-careful-and-says-they-cant-act-with-impunity-after-us-airstrike-that-killed-22-tehran-backed-militia-fighters-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=228638","title":{"rendered":"Biden warns Iran to &#8216;be careful&#8217; and says they &#8216;can&#8217;t act with impunity&#8217; after US airstrike that &#8216;killed 22&#8217; Tehran-backed militia fighters in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>US said Thursday it carried out an airstrike in Syria against a structure belonging to what it said were Iran-backed militia, two officials said\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The airstrike in\u00a0Al Bukamal reportedly killed 2 Iran-backed fighters Thursday\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>US dropped seven JDAMs on crossing used by militia groups to move weapons<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Attack was an apparent response to rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Strike could be the first retaliatory move by the US following last week&#8217;s attacks and it appeared to be limited in scope, potentially lowering risk of escalation<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It was also the first military action undertaken by the Biden administration<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Adam Schrader \u2013 Daily Mail and Reuters Feb 27, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_228640\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The_US_dropped_seven_500_pound_JDAMs_file_image_on_seven_targets-a-19_1614391237951.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-228640\" class=\"size-full wp-image-228640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The_US_dropped_seven_500_pound_JDAMs_file_image_on_seven_targets-a-19_1614391237951.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The_US_dropped_seven_500_pound_JDAMs_file_image_on_seven_targets-a-19_1614391237951.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The_US_dropped_seven_500_pound_JDAMs_file_image_on_seven_targets-a-19_1614391237951-480x322.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 630px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-228640\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The US dropped seven 500-pound JDAMs (file image) on seven targets on a crossing used by the militia groups to move weapons across the border<\/p><\/div>\n<p>President Joe Biden said on Friday that his decision to authorize United States airstrikes in Syria is a warning to Iran to not support militia groups that threaten U.S. interests or personnel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You can&#8217;t act with impunity. Be careful,&#8217; Biden said when a reporter asked what message he had intended to send with the airstrikes.<\/p>\n<p>White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday that Biden used his constitutional authority to defend U.S. personnel in\u00a0the first military actions he has authorized as Commander-in-Chief.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The targets were chosen to correspond to the recent attacks on facilities and to deter the risk of additional attacks over the coming weeks,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. on Thursday carried out an airstrike in Syria that reportedly killed 22 Iran-backed fighters in an apparent response to rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq that injured American troops and killed a contractor on February 15.<\/p>\n<p>The airstrike was conducted by\u00a0two Air Force F-15E aircraft which launched seven 500-pound JDAMs, precision guided munitions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2021\/02\/26\/us-airstrike-first-under-biden-kills-iran-backed-militiaman-militia-reserves-right-to-retaliate\/\"><strong>Military Times<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n<p>John Kirby, the Pentagon&#8217;s chief spokesman, said the strike fully destroyed nine facilities and &#8216;functionally destroyed&#8217; two others.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. targeted a crossing used by the militia groups to move weapons across the border.\u00a0Authorities said the airstrike targeted structures belonging to two Iranian-backed militias in Al Bukamal.<\/p>\n<p>The threat level for US soldiers and contractors in Iraq has since been raised by the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/threat-level-raised-us-troops-contractors-iraq\"><strong>Fox News<\/strong><\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Americans in Iraq were put on high alert as officials fear a response to the airstrike, sources told the outlet. The threat level may remain for several days.<\/p>\n<p>Sallyport Global, a company that fulfills US government contracts, has also put American contractors on high alert at Balad Air Base in a separate decision, Fox News reported.<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend, the air base was hit with a Katyusha rocket attack and one person was injured.<\/p>\n<p>In a political twist for the new Democratic administration, several leading Congress members in Biden&#8217;s own party denounced the airstrikes on Syria.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats said the airstrikes were done without authorization from lawmakers, while Republicans were more supportive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Offensive military action without congressional approval is not constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances,&#8217; said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>And Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said &#8216;retaliatory strikes not necessary to prevent an imminent threat.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>But Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, backed the decision as &#8216;the correct, proportionate response to protect American lives.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The airstrike comes after repeated tensions between Iran and the Trump White House over the previous four years which reached a peak following Qassem Soleimani&#8217;s killing in early 2020.<\/p>\n<p>While the strike could be the first retaliatory move by the United States following last week&#8217;s attacks, it appeared to be limited in scope, potentially lowering the risk of escalation.<\/p>\n<p>Also a decision to strike only in Syria and not in Iraq would give the Iraqi government some breathing room as it carries out its own investigation of a February 15 attack that wounded Americans.<\/p>\n<p>The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the strike was approved by President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>In announcing the strikes, John Kirby, the Pentagon&#8217;s chief spokesman, said: &#8216;This proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to deescalate the overall situation in eastern Syria and Iraq.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Pentagon officials said they offered up several larger groups of targets but Biden approved the smallest option.<\/p>\n<p>Retaliatory US military strikes have occurred a number of times in the past few years. The rocket attacks against US positions in Iraq were carried out as Washington and Tehran are looking for a way to return to the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Biden administration officials condemned the February 15 rocket attack near the city of Irbil in Iraq&#8217;s semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region, but as recently as this week officials indicated they had not determined for certain who carried it out.<\/p>\n<p>Officials have noted that in the past, Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups have been responsible for numerous rocket attacks that targeted US personnel or facilities in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, had said Tuesday that Iraq is in charge of investigating the February 15 attack.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Right now, we&#8217;re not able to give you a certain attribution as to who was behind these attacks, what groups, and I&#8217;m not going to get into the tactical details of every bit of weaponry used here,&#8217; Kirby said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Let&#8217;s let the investigations complete and conclude, and then when we have more to say, we will.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>A little-known Shiite militant group calling itself Saraya Awliya al-Dam, Arabic for Guardians of Blood Brigade, claimed responsibility for the February 15 attack.<\/p>\n<p>A week later, a rocket attack in Baghdad&#8217;s Green Zone appeared to target the US Embassy compound, but no one was hurt.<\/p>\n<p>Iran this week said it has no links to the Guardians of Blood Brigade.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Lloyd-Austin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-228641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Lloyd-Austin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"202\" \/><\/a>&#8216;I&#8217;m confident in the target that we went after, we know what we hit,&#8217; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters flying with him from California to Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking shortly after the airstrikes, he added: &#8216;We&#8217;re confident that that target was being used by the same Shia militants that conducted the strikes,&#8217; he said referring to the February\u00a015 rocket attack in northern Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition personnel.<\/p>\n<p>Austin said he recommended the action to Biden.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We said a number of times that we will respond on our timeline,&#8217; Austin said. &#8216;We wanted to be sure of the connectivity and we wanted to be sure that we had the right targets.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The frequency of attacks by Shiite militia groups against US targets in Iraq diminished late last year ahead of Biden&#8217;s inauguration, though now Iran is pressing America to return to Tehran&#8217;s 2015 nuclear deal.<\/p>\n<p>The US under the previous Trump administration blamed Iran-backed groups for carrying out the attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions soared after a Washington-directed drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen Qassem Soleimani and powerful Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis last year.<\/p>\n<p>Trump had said the death of a US contractor would be a red line and provoke US escalation in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>The December 2019 killing of a US civilian contractor in a rocket attack in Kirkuk sparked a tit-for-tat fight on Iraqi soil that brought the country to the brink of a proxy war.<\/p>\n<p>US forces have been significantly reduced in Iraq to 2,500 personnel and no longer partake in combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing operations against the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9305831\/Biden-says-Syrian-airstrike-message-Iran-careful.html\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Biden as puppet president these strikes could be the first of many<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iran","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228638"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228669,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228638\/revisions\/228669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}