“So, we have brought assets into the sea, we have brought two carrier strike groups, which represents really, you know, hundreds of ships and planes and thousands of troops. And yet, the strikes by the Shiite groups on American soldiers in Iraq and Syria continues apace. It hasn't slowed down. In fact, if anything, it's extended,” said retired Colonel Joe Buccino, a former spokesperson for US Central Command (CENTCOM).
“No, I do not assess that it's very effective,” he said of US deterrence policy in the region.
US interests in Iraq and Syria came under attack 78 times since mid-October, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday. The next day, multiple rockets were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad and drones were launched at Erbil airport, which hosts a military base.
The attacks are blamed on Iranian-backed Iraqi militia groups who are angry over Washington’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Buccino, who recently retired from the US army after nearly 30 years of service, said the recent attacks are “a significant escalation” and the United States is not doing enough to retaliate.
“What we're doing, what we've been doing is striking some buildings and killing some low-level fighters, hitting some ammo depots in Syria. And Iran doesn't care about that stuff. They just don't care about this. And they know, or they believe certainly, that the Biden administration doesn't have the will to scale up, to use those carrier strike groups to hit more relevant Iranian targets, IRGC targets,” he said, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in a phone call on Friday with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, identified two Iraqi militia groups as the main perpetrators - Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba - and said the “United States reserves the right to respond decisively against those groups,” according to a Pentagon statement after their call.
Sudani, however, warned Austin against taking any action without first obtaining the Iraqi government’s approval. Baghdad is unhappy with US airstrikes last month that killed eight militiamen, calling it a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
The United States has some 2,500 troops in Iraq on the invitation of the Iraqi government, and another 900 in Syria, to assist and advise Iraqi security forces, Kurdistan Region Peshmerga, and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS).
The mission of these additional troops “is to maintain a measure of stability, by staying ahead of ISIS and enabling the Kurds and the Syrian Democratic Forces to kill ISIS, and helping them with the targeting,” he said.
“We would also want to ensure an American footprint in Iraq and Syria, in order to, its kind of like a hedge against really full Iranian control there and allowing Iran to really get its influence in those two countries, and then from there, expand its influence out into the region,” he added.
