U.S. strikes Iran-backed militias in retaliation for deadly attack on American troops

Geoff Bennett:

The U.S. has started a series of military strikes against Iranian-backed militias in both Syria and Iraq tonight.

Amna Nawaz:

The bombing is in retaliation for an attack last weekend that killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens of others in Jordan.

Nick Schifrin has been reporting on these fast-moving developments and joins us here now.

So, Nick, what's the latest? What can you tell us?

Nick Schifrin:

The U.S. military said it used 125 munitions on more than 85 targets across seven locations in Iraq and Syria.

And the targets included command-and-control and intelligence centers, as well as storage facilities with missiles, rockets, drones that these groups have been using to target U.S. soldiers. The National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, said just a few minutes ago that these targets were specifically connected to attacks to U.S. troops in the region.

There have been more than 160 attacks on U.S. troops across Iraq and Syria, including the one this weekend that killed three U.S. soldiers. But the targets tonight went further than any U.S. strike, that map right there where the attacks that these proxy groups have launched against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

But what was significant about tonight's U.S. strikes is that the targets went beyond these proxy groups. The targets included the Quds Force. That is the part of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that sponsors these groups, that the U.S. says provides weapons, intelligence, and training to these groups.

And what's significant about that is, it's the first time in the last three months we have seen these attacks that the U.S. have attacked Iranians. These are Iranians, Iranian weapons, Iranian sites. Yes, they are connected to the proxy groups, but they are not the Iraqis and the Syrians who are actually pushing the button.

These are Iranians. And that is the first time that we have seen that. Also significant about these strikes, Amna, the U.S. flew B-1 bombers from the United States in order to attack Iraq and Syria, also something we have not seen.

A senior defense official told me that, strategically, it is a bit of a sign to Iran that — a reminder that the U.S. has the ability to fly these bombers, as well as the fact that the bombers bring heavier bombs to hit the underground facilities that the U.S. wants to hit, although Kirby on the record just now denied that they were trying to send any message to Iran tonight.

And the officials tonight reiterate something that we have heard from U.S. officials in the past, that this is the — quote — "first tier" of a multitier response. As President Biden put it today: "Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing."

And, Amna, the day began with a reminder for the commander in chief about the loss that led to tonight's strikes.

It is one of the military's most solemn rituals, at Dover Air Base in Delaware today, the commander in chief paying respect to the soldiers whose sacrifice was ultimate, three caskets, holding Staff Sergeant William Rivers, who today received a posthumous promotion, and Sergeants Kennedy Sanders and Breonna Moffett, all three from an engineering unit based in Georgia.

They were killed last weekend in their beds in Tower 22 in Jordan by a drone that U.S. officials believe was Iranian. Iran's military showcased some of its attack drones just last week. The group that the U.S. says fired it is part of the pro-Iranian proxy umbrella group Islamic Resistance of Iraq.

U.S. officials indicate they did not want to escalate, and so did not target Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran. In recent days, Iran seems to have sent signals of de-escalation. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says Tehran is slowing the speed at stockpiling enriched uranium, which it would need if it decided to produce nuclear weapons.

And Iran's supreme leader reportedly urged the government to distance itself from its proxy groups, including another member of the umbrella group Harakat al-Nujaba, which vowed today to keep attacking U.S. troops.

Today, before the strikes, Iran's President Ebrahim Rasi reiterated that Iran neither sought nor would shrink from war.

Ebrahim Rasi, Iranian President (through interpreter):

We have said many times we will not initiate any war, but if anyone wants to bully, Iran will respond firmly.

Nick Schifrin:

U.S. officials say they still don't have any sense at this moment of casualties at these sites, whether civilian or militant, Amna.

Amna Nawaz:

Nick, you mentioned the administration describes this as the first in a multitier response. What does that mean?

Nick Schifrin:

It's a good question.

They haven't really defined it. But when I talk to U.S. officials about the idea of that, they distinguish between different kinds of targets that the next few days could perhaps include. So tonight's targets were storage facilities, as we talked about, command-and-control centers. That is distinct from targeting leadership.

So that would be another step that the U.S. could consider. The U.S. insists — or U.S. officials I talked to insist that they do not plan to target Iran itself. But the strikes could expand to Yemen, of course. The ongoing U.S. and U.K. effort in Yemen has tried to degrade Houthi capacities who have launched three dozen attacks on U.S. ships and international shipping lanes.

And U.S. officials are telling me tonight to expect some kind of strike or some kind of concerted effort to continue to degrade the Houthi ability in Yemen. As for Iran's response, of course, it's too early to know that. But the administration officials I speak to say that they hope that this is calibrated.

They hope that it's calibrated to try and stop these attacks from continuing without sparking any kind of war with Iran. There's the question of whether there's any diplomatic talks secretly between the United States and Iran. Tonight, John Kirby of the National Security Council said there had been no communication between Iran and Washington.

But, again, what Washington is trying to do is stop the attacks, but not go to war with Iran.

Amna Nawaz:

Nick Schifrin with the late-breaking news of these U.S. strikes overseas.

Nick, thank you so much.

Nick Schifrin:

Thank you.