Trinity Clark
Editor-In-Chief
News headlines everywhere have reported that President Joe Biden recently bombed Syria. What is the importance of this topic, and who exactly is involved?
On February 25th, 2021, the American bombs were authorized on the border of eastern Syria and Iraq. These bombs were in retaliation to the rockets sent to the city of Erbil’s International Airport in Iraq on February 15th, 2021, as reported by Sangar Khaleel and Jane Arraf who wrote “Rocket Attack in Iraq Kills a U.S. Military Contractor” for the New York Times. A Filipino contractor was killed in the process and six others were wounded, including a U.S. service member.
It should be noted that airstrikes were also sent to other areas of Erbil that were populated with civilians. 14 rockets were sent in total to the city of Erbil. Some sources state that a missile was fired close to the Chinese Consulate, which is similar to an embassy in Iraq as well. The source of these airstrikes has yet to be confirmed, but it has been assumed that two Iranian-backed militias are responsible. The reasoning for this assumption can most basically be summed up to the fact that the Iranian-backed militias have sent rockets to Iraq before and targeted buildings such as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
According to David Martin and Margaret Brennan at CBS News, by authorizing the bombs to be sent on February 25th, 2021, President Biden had officially performed his first military action of his presidency. The facilities targeted by the U.S. were found in al Bukamal, Syria. Certain Iranian-backed military groups have been known to frequent the facilities, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al Shuhada as stated by the Pentagon spokesperson, John Kirby.
The number of people hurt in these attacks was at least twenty-two, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. They also stated that the bombs hit three militia trucks carrying members of Kataib Hezbollah. In fear of more attacks, the militias quickly left the facilities targeted by the U.S.
A public statement released by Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, read, "We're confident in the target we went after. We know what we hit. We're confident that target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes".
These bombings happened a week after President Biden’s proposition to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as well as his administrations’ discussions to release American hostages in Iran with Tehran, the capital of Iran.
Understanding that these current events are built upon many previous events and that there is a lot of information to go through, The Eagle’s Eye newspaper continues to encourage our readers to look into topics on their own to avoid any misconceptions arising.
Image Credit: carnegie-mec.org
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