美国在东部进行了一次军事空袭叙利亚与...接壤伊拉克据五角大楼称，周四晚上，针对伊朗支持的民兵组织，以报复最近在伊拉克北部埃尔比勒发生的火箭弹袭击，此次袭击造成数名美国人受伤。
一名美国官员说，空袭的目标是叙利亚东部城镇布卡迈勒的建筑，这些建筑属于两个伊朗支持的民兵组织，他们过去曾对美国在伊拉克的设施，包括美国驻巴格达大使馆，发动过火箭袭击。
五角大楼发言人约翰·科比(John Kirby)在周四晚上发表的一份声明中表示:“在拜登总统的指示下，美国军队今晚早些时候对伊朗支持的激进组织在叙利亚东部使用的基础设施进行了空袭。”
“这些袭击是授权的，以回应最近对美国和联军在伊拉克的人员的袭击，以及对这些人员的持续威胁，”科比继续说。“具体来说，这次袭击摧毁了位于一个边境控制点的多个设施，这些设施被一些伊朗支持的激进组织使用，其中包括真主党(KH)和KSS(Kait ' IB Sayyid al-Shu hada)。”
另一名官员称，空袭的目标是两个团体都参与走私到伊拉克的地点。
“这种适度的军事反应是与外交措施一起进行的，包括与联盟伙伴的协商，”科比说。“这次行动发出了一个明确的信息:拜登总统将采取行动保护美国和联军人员。与此同时，我们采取了深思熟虑的行动，旨在缓和叙利亚东部和伊拉克的总体局势。”
空袭是对2月15日袭击的报复对美国基地的火箭袭击在伊拉克北部城市埃尔比勒，一名联盟承包商被杀，数名美国承包商和一名美国军人受伤。
空袭发生在美国东部时间周四下午6点左右。
“我们对追求的目标充满信心。我们知道我们撞到了什么。国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀在结束加州之旅返回华盛顿特区时对记者说:“我们相信，袭击目标正是实施袭击的什叶派民兵所使用的。”。
奥斯汀说，他已经向拜登建议了空袭，并补充说，美国鼓励伊拉克政府“调查和发展情报，这对我们完善目标非常有帮助。”
他表示，政府关于如何应对埃尔比勒火箭袭击的做法是“非常谨慎的”，以确保民兵与袭击“连通”，并“我们有正确的目标”。
空袭是由两架美国军用飞机进行的，尽管其中只有一架飞机向目标投掷了至少一枚炸弹。据一名美国官员称，罢工可能导致“少数人死亡”。
这位官员告诉美国广播公司新闻，瞄准该设施是拜登面临的最小的军事选择。
袭击叙利亚境内而非伊拉克境内民兵目标的决定被国家安全分析师视为明智之举。
美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)撰稿人、前中东事务助理国防部长米克·马尔罗伊(Mick Mulroy)表示，周四的空袭“可能是经过精心计算和调整的，以避免事态升级，并发出一个信息，即伊朗使用民兵作为代理人不会让他们逃避责任”。“在叙利亚而不是伊拉克发动袭击的决定可能会避免给伊拉克政府造成问题，伊拉克政府是继续打击伊斯兰国的关键合作伙伴。”
华盛顿近东政策研究所研究员菲利普·史密斯(Phillip Smyth)说:“这是拜登政府的一个非常聪明的举动。”他研究伊朗在伊拉克和叙利亚的代理民兵组织。史密斯说，通过打击叙利亚一个“完全由”伊朗支持的民兵控制的地区，美国“消除了伊拉克街头日益民族主义——反伊朗和警惕美国——因可能被视为在伊拉克领土内的单方面袭击而感到不安的风险。”
“引发这一事件的火箭袭击是为了测试拜登的白宫，这是一件非常伊朗的事情，”道格·伦敦说，他是一名34岁的中情局老兵，也是即将出版的《招募者:间谍活动和美国情报艺术的损失》一书的作者
“我认为这是一个非常有分寸和适当的回应方式——通过针对库尔德工人党，针对伊朗，但在叙利亚而不是伊拉克这样做，”伦敦说。
五角大楼没有将埃尔比勒的袭击归咎于伊朗支持的民兵组织，尽管袭击后不久发现的法医证据表明，这与过去进行过类似袭击的伊朗支持的民兵组织有关联。
正如拜登政府官员所说，袭击仍在调查中。白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)上周表示，美国“保留以我们选择的时间和方式”对袭击做出回应的权利。
周四早些时候，伊拉克北部的库尔德政府声称已经确定了袭击的嫌疑人，并向伊拉克政府和驻巴格达的美军提供了这一信息。
周四的空袭不是美国军方第一次以真主党为目标。以前是这样的报复一枚火箭弹袭击了一个军事基地，造成两名美国军人死亡，一名英国军人死亡，14人受伤。
US carries out airstrike against Iranian-backed militia in Syria
The United States conducted a military airstrike in easternSyriaalong the border withIraqon Thursday night targeting Iranian-backed militias in retaliation for a recent rocket strike in Erbil in northern Iraq that left several Americans injured, according to the Pentagon.
The airstrike targeted structures in the eastern Syrian town of Al Bukamal that belong to two Iranian-backed militias that have launched rocket attacks in the past against American facilities in Iraq, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to a U.S. official.
"At President Biden's direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria," John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement issued Thursday night.
"These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel," Kirby continued. "Specifically, the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kait'ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kait'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS)."
Another official described the airstrike as targeting a location through which both groups engaged in smuggling into Iraq.
"This proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with Coalition partners," said Kirby. "The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and Coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq."
The airstrike was in retaliation for a Feb. 15rocket attack against a U.S. basein the northern Iraqi city of Erbil that killed a coalition contractor and left several American contractors and a U.S. military service member wounded.
The airstrikes took place at about 6 p.m. ET Thursday.
"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," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters while returning to Washington, D.C., from a trip to California.
Austin said he had recommended the airstrike to Biden and added that the U.S. had encouraged the Iraqi government "to investigate and develop intelligence and that was very helpful to us in refining the target."
He said the administration's approach about how to respond to the rocket attack in Erbil had been "very deliberate" to ensure "connectivity" of the militia to the attack and that "we had the right targets."
The airstrike was conducted by two American military aircraft though only one of them dropped at least one bomb at the target. The strike may have resulted in "a handful of fatalities," according to a U.S. official.
The targeting of the facility was the smallest military option presented to Biden, the official told ABC News.
The decision to strike at a militia targets inside of Syria and not inside of Iraq was seen as a smart move by national security analysts.
Thursday's airstrike "was probably calculated and scaled to avoid an escalation and send a message that Iran's use of militias as proxies will not allow them to avoid responsibility," said Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East and an ABC News contributor. "The decision to strike in Syria instead of Iraq was likely to avoid causing issues for the Iraqi government, a key partner in the continuing efforts against ISIS."
"This was a very smart move by the Biden administration,' said Phillip Smyth, a Soref fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who studies Iran's proxy militias in Iraq and Syria. By striking an area in Syria "completely controlled" by Iranian-backed militias, Smyth said the U.S. "eliminated the risk of the Iraqi street, which is increasingly nationalistic -- anti-Iran and wary of the U.S. -- from getting upset by what could be perceived to be a unilateral strike within Iraqi territory."
"The rocket attacks that triggered this were meant to test the Biden White House, and that's a very Iranian thing to do," said Doug London, a 34-year CIA veteran and the author of a forthcoming book, "The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence"
"I think this was a very measured and appropriate way to respond -- by targeting the group, KH, targeting Iran, but doing it in Syria as opposed to Iraq," said London.
The Pentagon had not blamed Iranian-backed militias for the attack in Erbil even though forensic evidence recovered soon after the attack pointed to a connection to Iranian-backed militias that have conducted similar attacks in the past.
As Biden administration officials said the attack remained under investigation White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week that the U.S. "reserves the right to respond in the time and manner of our choosing" to the attack.
Earlier on Thursday, the Kurdish Government in northern Iraq claimed that it had identified suspects in the attacks and had provided that information to the Iraqi government and the U.S. military in Baghdad.
Thursday's air strike was not the first time that the U.S. military has targeted Kait'ib Hezbollah. It did previouslyin retaliationfor a rocket attack on a military base that killed two American service members, a British service member and wounded 14 others.
