ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Joe Biden notified Congress on Saturday of his decision to authorize strikes against what he said were Iranian-affiliated targets in eastern Syria earlier in the week.
The US strikes came in response to a drone strike targeting a Coalition base near northeast Syria’s Hasaka city on Thursday, killing an American contractor and injuring six others. In retaliation, US forces launched airstrikes against groups affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) based in eastern Syria.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the death of 16 pro-Iran fighters and three Syrian soldiers in the retaliatory attack.
According to Biden’s letter to Congress, the strikes were conducted “to protect and defend the safety of our personnel, to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and our partners, and to deter the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iran‑backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks” targeting American personnel.
The president added that Washington “stands ready to take further action, as necessary and appropriate, to address further threats or attacks.”
The notification letter to Congress is a normal procedure, part of the War Powers Act which requires the president to inform Congress within 48 hours of taking any military action.
This week’s incident marks the deadliest exchange of strikes between Washington and Iran-affiliated groups in years.
Tit-for-tat attacks between the US and Iran playing out in Iraq and Syria have decreased over the past year. In August, US forces launched airstrikes targeting facilities used by Iranian-backed militias in Deir ez-Zor in an attack it said was in retaliation to an attack on a US base.
Hundreds of US troops stationed in Syria are part of an international coalition that has fought alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against ISIS.
Tension between Washington and Tehran is already high and the strikes are likely to add more pressure. The US has repeatedly expressed its concerns at Iran’s nuclear program, warning that it has enough material to produce nuclear weapons, while also sanctioning Tehran for its crackdown on protesters and for providing drones to Russia to use in Ukraine.
