Biden: Syria strikes ‘be careful’ warning to Iran

Tehran can expect consequences for backing militia groups

President Joe Biden has said that Iran should view his decision to authorise US airstrikes in Syria as a warning that it can expect consequences for its support of militia groups that threaten US interests or personnel.

“You can’t act with impunity. Be careful,’’ Biden said when a reporter asked what message he had intended to send with the airstrikes, which the Pentagon said destroyed several buildings in eastern Syria but were not intended to eradicate the militia groups that used them to facilitate attacks inside Iraq.

Administration officials defended the Thursday night airstrikes as legal and appropriate, saying they took out facilities that housed valuable “capabilities’’ used by Iranian-backed militia groups to attack American and allied forces in Iraq.

John Kirby, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, said members of Congress were notified before the strikes as two Air Force F-15E aircraft launched seven missiles, destroying nine facilities and heavily damaging two others, rendering both “functionally destroyed.’’ He said the facilities, at “entry control points’’ on the border, had been used by militia groups the US deems responsible for recent attacks against US interests in Iraq.

Kirby said . He said the strikes resulted in “casualties’’. An Iraqi militia official said that the strikes killed one fighter and wounded several others. Kirby said the facilities hit in the attack were near Boukamal, on the Syrian side of the Iraq border, along the Euphrates River. “This location is known to facilitate Iranian-aligned militia group activity,’’ he said. He described the site as a “compound’’ that previously had been used by Daesh group when it held sway in the area.

The Iraqi militia official said that the strikes against the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, hit an area along the border between the Syrian site of Boukamal facing Qaim on the Iraqi side.