Biden Launches Missile Strike in Syria

The February 25 missile strike targeted Iraqi militant groups in Syria. (Flickr) 

President Joe Biden launched a missile strike in Syria on February 25 against the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada groups in what is being called a “retaliatory strike” by the administration. The strike reportedly killed at least 22 militia members. The administration claims that the strike was ordered in response to the February 15 attack on an airport in Erbil, Iraq that killed a U.S. military contractor.

Kataib Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Iraqi insurgent group founded in 2007, has received significant training, logistical support, and weaponry from the Iranian state military. The group is a leading member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella organization of Shi’ite militias that formed to fight the Islamic State in Iraq. Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada is also an Iranian-backed, Iraqi Shi’ite militant group that similarly conducts operations in both Iraq and Syria. Another member of the PMF, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada fights alongside the Iraqi Government and other Shi’ite paramilitaries against the Islamic State and has allied with the IRGC in the past.

The United States has maintained that the five missiles launched on February 25 served solely as retaliation against the two militias for their "blatant attack" earlier that month. In a press release from the Pentagon, officials noted that the strike was close enough to the Iraqi border in eastern Syria that it constituted a "proportionate military response” to the initial Iraqi-based attack. They also claim that it was taken "together with diplomatic measures.” including consulting coalition partners.

While the United States has been fighting these groups in Iraq under a 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), the February 25 strike has been widely criticized as an overreach of presidential power for its supposed lack of authorization.

With the US hoping to reopen negotiations with Iranian officials to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the coming months, some experts see the strike against the Iranian-supported groups as a pointed message to the Iranian leadership. The nature of the attack demonstrates American commitment to proportional responses in the region, ostensibly in hopes of encouraging Iranian cooperation in future diplomatic proceedings.