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President Joe Biden said the U.S. military struck targets in Iraq in order to prevent further attacks on American personnel in the Middle East, which have fueled concerns about a wider regional conflict.
U.S. forces on Christmas Day struck three installations linked to an Iran-backed insurgent group, their latest retaliation against militias targeting Americans. The strikes are “intended to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and our partners” and to “deter” Tehran’s proxy forces “from conducting or supporting further attacks,” Biden wrote Wednesday in a letter to congressional leaders.
The president’s comments provided the broadest rationale yet for stepped-up U.S. military action in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war.
