Biden calls off Syria strike after woman, children seen at site - report
The F-15E war planes were already en route when they received the orders to proceed on the first target, but scratch the second.
By ZACHARY KEYSER, REUTERSAn internally displaced Syrian woman and her children sit in a tent in an IDP camp located near Idlib(photo credit: UMIT BEKTAS / REUTERS)US President Joe Biden called off a second airstrike in Syria which intended to target a separate site controlled by Iranian-backed militias when the president was urgently notified there was "a woman and a couple of children" in the courtyard of the marked facility, a report published in the Wall Street Journalrevealed on Friday.The message, notifying Biden the woman and children had been observed at the site, was reportedly delivered to the president by national security adviser Jake Sullivan just 30 minutes before the strike was meant to take place.With knowledge of the woman and children's presence and moments until the fighter jets reach their marks, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin suggested hitting just the lone target along the Iraqi-Syrian border.The F-15E war planes were already en route when they received the orders to proceed and attack the first target, but to not bomb the second.Last Thursday, US forces carried out airstrikes against facilities at a border control point in Syria used by Iranian-backed militias including Kata'ib Hezbollah and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.The attacks, which took place early on Friday local time, were deliberately limited in scope and designed to show that Biden's administration will act tough but wants to avoid a major regional escalation, US officials said.Washington and Tehran are seeking maximum leverage in attempts to return to the Iran nuclear deal secured in 2015 but abandoned by former US President Donald Trump in 2018, after which regional tensions soared and fears of full-scale conflict grew.The US strikes targeted militia sites on the Syrian side of the Iraqi-Syrian border, where groups backed by Iran control an important crossing for weapons, personnel and goods.Western officials and some Iraqi officials accuse Iran-backed groups of involvement in deadly rocket attacks against US sites and personnel in Iraq in the last month.An Iraqi militia official close to Iran said Friday's strikes killed at least one fighter and wounded four more, hitting positions of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah paramilitary group along the border.
Pentagon officials confirmed the death of the militia fighter, claiming two others were wounded in the attack.Local sources and one medical source in eastern Syria told Reuters at least 17 people had been killed, but gave no further details. That toll could not be confirmed.The US strikes followed an uptick in anti-US attacks in Iraq. The most serious incident, which killed a non-American contractor at a US military based at Erbil International Airport in Kurdish-run northern Iraq on Feb. 15, was followed in the days after by rockets on a base hosting US forces and near the US embassy in Baghdad.
