More than 96 hours after the attack on the US military base in Jordan, the United States finally announced its retaliation plan. According to CBS, the White House has approved an operational plan for military strikes against Iranian-related military targets in Syria and Iraq, and retaliation will be distributed in the coming days.
The U.S. military outpost at Tower 22 on the Jordanian border with Syria was attacked.
Over the weekend, the U.S. military's Tower 22 outpost in the border area between Syria and Jordan was hit by a drone strike, killing three U.S. soldiers and injuring more than 40 other U.S. troops of varying severity. After the airstrikes, the Allah Brigades, Iraq's pro-Iranian militia Qatab active in Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility for the incident, and the United States later announced military retaliation against the backstage, although the United States had not taken action for 96 hours.
In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli Air Force launched air strikes on several locations south of the Syrian capital Damascus, and the Syrian side said that the air defense forces successfully repelled the Israeli air strikes, and the Israeli air strikes did not create *** personnel**. It is unclear whether the Israeli airstrikes are linked to planned U.S. retaliation. Since the outbreak of the current round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israel has repeatedly carried out air strikes on targets in Syria, and in the latest large-scale air strike, five members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "Quds Al-Quds" were killed, and the latter has a close relationship with the Iraqi Qatab Allah brigade that recently killed three US troops, US Secretary of Defense Austin said that it does not matter whether Iran recognizes or not, and the United States has identified the Iraqi Katab Allah brigade as Iran's leading person in the Middle East.
A building in Syria associated with the Allah brigade in Qatab.
As previously anticipated, the U.S. announced retaliation targets are all in Syria and Iraq, excluding targets in Iran, and excluding Iranian sea-based ships active in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
After the scope of the attack was determined, the target of US retaliation can be said to have been put on the table, that is, Iranian ** people operating in Syria and Iraq, the Iraqi Qatab Allah brigade that launched the attack naturally bore the brunt, and other groups are mainly Iranian militias and pro-Iranian armed groups in Syria.
Pro-Iranian militias active in the Middle East.
These groups are mainly active in the province of Deir ez-Zor in northeastern Syria and in the areas along the border with Iraq. According to reports from Syria, after killing and wounding dozens of US soldiers at the outpost of Tower 22 on the Jordanian-Syrian border, armed militia groups in Deir ez-Zor and other places in Syria have ceased all activities and are on high alert, while the leaders of these organizations have been transferred to Homs Province and Damascus to hide.
So why did the United States delay retaliating with air strikes and make its plan public before the operation was launched?
Clause. First, the United States does not want to escalate the situation. If the United States launches a fierce retaliatory air strike immediately after the attack on the base at the outpost of Tower 22, it will undoubtedly be able to destroy Iran's most important people in the region, but obviously such a retaliation also means that all US military bases in the Middle East will become the target of Iranian attacks. It is simple to eliminate an Iraqi Katab Allah brigade, but the difficult thing is to deal with swarm attacks, so the United States chooses to notify the other party before retaliating, leave enough time for the other side to prepare, and then bomb a few bases to vent the air, and Iran, which has not suffered a big loss, will naturally not escalate the situation.
Clause. Second, it cannot be ruled out that the United States will "lure the snake out of its hole" through bluffing. The United States has a very powerful reconnaissance and surveillance system in the Middle East, and after the United States announces its retaliation plan, the Iranians in Syria and Iraq are bound to take measures such as strengthening their vigilance and transferring equipment and personnel to avoid possible air strikes, and these actions can be captured by the US reconnaissance and surveillance system, so as to provide accurate air targets for the US military.
Clause. Third, Biden needs to give an explanation to the country. The United States has always only bullied others, but during the Biden term, the overseas bases of the US military were frequently deflated, and the fact that three US troops were killed in their own bases was unprecedented. During the critical period of the United States, even if he no longer wants to fight, Biden needs to make some strong moves to respond to doubts. A combination of punches like this, which has not been fought a few times before it has been hit, can not only make itself "tough" in terms of publicity, but also effectively prevent the situation from escalating and expanding, so as to achieve the goal of killing two birds with one stone.
The U.S. response to the U.S. base attack reflects the fact that U.S. influence in the Middle East is waning. In the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the Red Sea crisis, the United States has indeed lost its skills, let alone provoke Iran, a thorn in the Middle East that is very good at causing trouble. Recall that in the past, during the Iranian nuclear crisis, the United States was able to organize several aircraft carrier battle groups to intimidate Iran in the Persian Gulf, but now the US Navy does not even have a single Arleigh Burke ship in the Persian Gulf, so how can it put pressure on Iran?