The United States carried out airstrikes yesterday which targeted Iranian-backed militia groups near the Iraqi border in eastern Syria.
The airstrikes were the first military actions undertaken by the Biden administration. The Pentagon said the strikes were a “proportionate military response” to a rocket attack on US targets earlier this month, where a civilian contractor was killed and a US service member and five other contractors were injured.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US was “confident that that target was being used by the same Shia militants that conducted the strikes”.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that the airstrikes “destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian- backed militant groups” including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada.
At least one militia fighter was killed and four others wounded, according to an Iraqi militia official.
