JUST IN: U.S. Launches Airstrike Against Iranian-Backed Militias in Syria, First Known Military Action Under Biden

The United States launched an airstrike against Iranian-backed militias in Syria on Thursday, the first known military action of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Reporting on the breaking news, CNN’s Erin Burnett noted that the airstrike was in response to “three separate rocket attacks in the past couple of weeks against American forces in Baghdad, in which a civilian contractor was killed, an American serviceman, along with eight other contractors [who] were wounded in another one of those attacks.”

CNN Pentagon correspondent Oren Liebermann described the airstrike as hitting multiple sites on the same target, an area that local militias use for weapons smuggling.

Liebermann characterized the attack as the Biden White House “sending a message to those Iranian-backed militias,” and highlighted the “relatively small scale” of the attack, reflecting a desire to not unduly escalate the situation as diplomatic negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program restart.

“This is not apparently an attack on a major site,” said Liebermann. “It was an attack on a site meant to send two separate messages. First, trying to deter the Iranian backed Shi’a militias from attacking U.S. Coalition forces and a response to the previous attacks over the course of the past week-and-a-half or so. One in Baghdad and one at the air base north of Baghdad.”

CNN’s Phil Mattingly concurred, noting that the Biden administration was trying to achieve a “delicate balance” with this airstrike, “trying to keep the proxies in check, trying to make clear to Iran, even in a small calculated scale, that they are paying attention, that they will strike back — while they are also trying to reopen talks themselves.”

Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, former commanding general for Europe, praised the airstrike on CNN as a “good” and “proportional response” to the Iranian government, and the “continual harassment” by these Iranian militias.

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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