On Thursday, February 25th, President Joe Biden ordered an airstrike on Syria which targeted buildings that the Pentagon said were used by Iranian-backed militias. This strike was in retaliation to the numerous rocket attacks on the U.S. in the neighboring country Iraq. The airstrike killed at least 22 people, however, it is too early to be able to know the exact number of militia fighters that have been killed or wounded, according to NBC News. 

The decision to drop the airstrike on Syria had been discussed over the phone between President Joe Biden and the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, according to the New York Times. In the end, both had come to the agreement that ¨those responsible for such attacks must be held fully to account. 

According to NBC News, John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press Secretary, says that two F-15 fighter jets dropped seven precision guided munitions on the set of buildings used by the Iranian- backed militias. In total, this drop destroyed nine structures and damaged two.  

“We have preliminary indications of casualties on site, I’m not going to go any further than that,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon’s Press Secretary, about the attack. 

However, this was not a random airstrike on Syria from the United States. Earlier that week, Syria had launched 3 rocket attacks on Iraq over the course of 7 days. One of the rocket attacks that Syria sent out was deadly and ended up hitting the U.S. coalition base in a northern town in Iraq called Irbil. The airstrike on Syria had only one purpose. It was to send the message to Syria that the U.S. will not put up with the attacks on their personnel in Iraq, according to NBC News. 

Not only were the rocket attacks from Syria on the U.S. personnel very dangerous and threatening, but they also disrupted a major diplomatic initiative. According to NBC News, the administration had been in the middle of bringing the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers back to life. However, since Syria launched 3 rocket attacks in the span of one week, that pushed this initiative even farther back from happening. 

This airstrike was the first U.S. military action President Biden has performed. A day after the airstrike, Iran´s foreign ministry commended the strike, according to CNN. The ministry claims that the presence of the US troops in Syria was illegal and accused the country of training ¨terrorists¨. However, the U.S. informed the ministry that the strike was an act of self defense. 

“The strikes were necessary to address the threat and proportionate to the prior attacks,” the spokesman said, according to CNN. 

The airstrike that the U.S. placed on Syria may not have been the prettiest thing, however, it was necessary. After threats and rocket attacks, The U.S. was not going to let Syria push them around.