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The White House is calling on the Iraqi government to take quicker action against Iran-backed militias.
Officials in Baghdad criticize US airstrikes after the deaths of three US soldiers.
Washington DC - National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Sunday the Iraqi government must "act more quickly" to end the threat from militias that have attacked US military positions.
The groups, organized under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have carried out at least 165 attacks on U.S. forces since October.
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“Three Americans were killed, three soldiers;
“three families are grieving now,” Kirby said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“The president is not going to sit back and accept this.
We will respond to it.”
USA announces reaction to killed soldiers
Kirby said that President Biden had authorized smaller counterattacks in response to previous attacks on U.S. positions and that he would not let the deaths of the three soldiers go unanswered.
The soldiers - William Rivers, 46, Breonna Moffett, 23, and Kennedy Sanders, 24 - were killed on January 28 when a disposable attack drone crashed into the sleeping quarters of a small outpost in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders.
Daily White House Press Briefing NSC Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby attends the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC on January 31, 2024 (symbolic image).
© AdMedia/Imago
According to the Pentagon, the attacks on Friday evening hit about 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, prompting the Iraqi government to summon a senior US diplomat, David Pecker, and release an official note of protest.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said civilians were killed in the attacks and that Iraq did not want to be a venue where "scores between rival countries" are settled.
Israel-Gaza war worsens the situation of US troops in Iraq and Syria
The comments underscored the difficult balancing act that Washington and Baghdad are trying to maintain as militias armed and trained by Iran pressure the United States to leave Iraq.
At the invitation of the government in Baghdad, the Pentagon has stationed around 2,500 US soldiers in Iraq to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.
About 900 other US soldiers are in Syria on a similar mission.
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The United States and Britain also launched a new wave of attacks in Yemen on Saturday, hitting about 35 targets linked to the Houthi militants who seized control of much of the country in 2014.
For months, Houthi fighters have been attacking merchant ships and US warships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Like the militias in Iraq and Syria, the Houthis have linked their attacks to the war in Gaza and US support for the Israeli government.
They also receive weapons and training from Iran, according to US officials.
“Meet escalation with escalation” – Houthis threaten the USA
There were signs over the weekend that the attacks would continue.
In Syria, two rockets were fired Saturday at a U.S. military base called Mission Support Site Euphrates, said Maj. Pete Nguyen, a Pentagon spokesman.
Nobody was injured.
In Yemen, Houthi officials said they were responding to Saturday's attacks.
“The US-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political office, said in a post on social media early Sunday.
He added that the Houthis will not stop their attacks on shipping until Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip end.
Houthi rebels at a rally against US and UK attacks on Houthi-run military facilities.
(Archive image) © dpa
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that U.S. authorities cannot rule out further attacks by the groups on U.S. forces.
“The primary purpose of the strikes was to deprive the capabilities of the Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that are attacking our forces and the Houthis that continue to threaten shipping in the Red Sea,” Sullivan said.
“And we believe they have had a good effect in reducing and weakening the capabilities of the militias and the Houthis.
And we will continue to take action when necessary.”
Critics accuse Biden of inadequate responses to attacks against US soldiers
In a separate interview on MSNBC's "Inside with Jen Psaki," Sullivan said the United States will also be watching for possible Iranian responses in the coming weeks.
Biden said he was not looking to escalate the conflict.
“How Tehran wants to proceed from here is of course up to it,” Sullivan said.
“But we will be watching this closely, and we are prepared to deal with whatever comes next.” Republicans and some bipartisan national security experts have criticized the Biden administration for its approach, claiming Washington has not done enough to to prevent Iran's role in the attacks.
Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, a retired Marine Corps general who led U.S. military operations in the Middle East from 2019 to 2022, said on the CBS news program “Face the Nation” that the United States “specifically delisted Iran itself of potential targets in this campaign,” and that this provided “help and comfort” to Iran.
“I’m not advocating attacking Iran,” McKenzie said.
“I advocate that they must be in the space of possible targets... so that they are at risk.”
McKenzie said there is “some truth” that Iran is unlikely to carry out targeted attacks on U.S. forces.
A few years ago, McKenzie said, Iran gave the militias blanket permission to attack U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria, creating a structure whereby the militias no longer had to return to Tehran to seek authorization.
Biden administration relies on diplomatic solutions in the Middle East
The Biden administration sought to contain the fallout, sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East on his fifth trip to the region since October.
Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank, the State Department said Sunday.
Blinken has tried to prevent the conflict from spreading.
He is also working on longer-term postwar planning for the Gaza Strip, including an agreement between Arab states and Israel on a single, Palestinian-led authority that would govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Blinken will work to “create a more integrated, peaceful region that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
But significant disagreements remain between Israeli and Arab leaders over Blinken's roadmap, which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state - something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will not allow.
Blinken will also seek to expand humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip as Palestinians are near starvation and lack food, medicine and water.
Jennifer Hassan in London, John Hudson in Washington and Kelly Kasulis Cho in Seoul contributed to this report.
To the author
Dan Lamothe
has worked for The Washington Post since 2014, covering the U.S. military.
He has been writing about the armed forces for more than 15 years, has traveled extensively, gotten to know five branches of the armed forces and reported on combat operations in Afghanistan.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 4, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.