The Biden administration appears to be sending Iran a message with the US airstrike in Syria. Photo / AP
The Biden administration appears to be sending Iran a message with the US airstrike in Syria. Photo / AP
A US airstrike targeting facilities used by Iran-backed militias in Syria appears to be a message to Tehran delivered by a new American administration still figuring out its approach to the Middle East.
The strike was seemingly a response to stepped-up rocket attacks by such militias that have targeted US interests in Iraq, where the armed groups are based. It comes even as Washington and Tehran consider a return to the 2015 accord meant to rein in Iran's nuclear programme.
The US appears to have chosen the target, just across the border in Syria rather than in Iraq, carefully. It's a way for President Joe Biden to signal he will be tough on Iran while avoiding a response that could offset the delicate balance in Iraq itself or trigger a wider confrontation.
And it's yet another example of how Syria, mired in civil war for the past decade, has often served as a proxy battlefield for world powers.
The US airstrike — which took place Friday in Syria — targeted one of the most powerful Iran-backed militias in the Middle East known as Kataeb Hezbollah, or the Hezbollah Brigades. The group is part of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, which includes an array of Iraqi militias.
The group was founded after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. It is different from Lebanon's Hezbollah, but the two groups are strong allies. In recent years, Kataeb Hezbollah has played a major role in the fight against the Islamic State group as well as helping President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria's conflict.
The group was founded by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi militant who was closely allied with Iran and killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020 along with General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force. The US has hit the group before: In December 2019, an American strike along the Syria-Iraq border killed 25 of its fighters and wounded dozens. Washington called it retaliation for the death of an American contractor in a rocket attack that it blamed on Kataeb Hezbollah.
The US assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. Photo / AP
What does the airstrike mean for US relations with Iran?
The attack is likely aimed at sending a message to Tehran that the US will not tolerate attacks against American interests in the region, while leaving the door open for talks.
It comes as the Biden administration faces an uncertain road in its attempts to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — which relieved Tehran of billions of dollars in sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. The Trump administration unilaterally pulled out of the agreement in 2018.
In the meantime, US relations with Iran have been further strained as the country's proxies become more assertive, with Iran-backed militias increasingly targeting US interests and allies. That has rekindled worries that the standoff relations between the US and Iran could end up being fought out in Iraq.
Already there are signs that Iraq is being used to fight a proxy war. Explosive-laden drones that targeted Saudi Arabia's royal palace in the kingdom's capital last month were launched from inside Iraq, a senior Iran-backed militia official in Baghdad and a US official told The Associated Press this week.
Tensions between the US and Iran threaten to spill over into Iraq. Photo / AP
Will the airstrike trigger a wider escalation?
That is unlikely at this point.
Biden's decision to attack in Syria does not appear to signal an intention to widen US military involvement in the region, but rather to demonstrate a will to defend US troops in Iraq while also avoiding embarrassing the Iraqi government, a US ally, by striking on its territory.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the operation in Boukamal, Syria, 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."
A Syrian commentator based in Turkey, Abdulkader Dwehe, said the choice of Syria was a wise one.
"Responding in Iraq could open a front that may be hard to close," he tweeted following the attack. "With the Boukamal strike, a valuable point, and a political message rather than a military one, have been made."
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the Syria airstrike was in response to recent attacks against US personnel in Iraq. Photo / AP
Following in the footsteps of other US presidents
In its first weeks, the new Biden administration has emphasised its intent to put its focus on the challenges posed by China — even as volatility and threats to US interests persist in the Middle East.
But the operation proved the region is never far from a US president's agenda.
