Republicans say President Biden must respond even more forcefully to retaliate against Iran after its allies killed three Americans in a drone strike on a base in Jordan last weekend.
The Pentagon confirmed that long-range bombers and drones hit 85 targets with 145 bombs in Iraq and Syria on Friday evening in the widespread military operation.
But Republicans are raising concerns that the Biden administration has not attacked Iran directly enough.
GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez went after President Biden on a post on X just minutes after the strikes were made public Oil sanctions must be reimposed on Iran ‘immediately’, in addition to military action.
Rich Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction on Trump’s National Security Council, said the US should have struck Iranian commanders.
“Notably missing targets: IRGC commanders,” he wrote on X.
Republican leaders also criticized Biden’s “weakness,” which some say prompted the deadly attack on U.S. troops.
The US has begun carrying out airstrikes in Syria in response to the drone strike in Jordan that killed three US soldiers, reports suggest.
GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez went after President Biden on a post on X just minutes after the strikes were made public
Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia (left) and Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, were killed in the drone strike on a US air base in Jordan
“President Biden is weak and our enemies know it. His misguided foreign policy led to these attacks on the United States,” continued Gimenez, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said the retaliatory strikes should have occurred on the “same day” that troops were killed.
“The weakness Biden has shown toward Iran over the past three years has given power to bad actors in the Middle East. Trump’s Maximum Pressure Campaign WORKED. Economic sanctions will hem Iran back in.”
Representative Mike Waltz, who is also a member of the Armed Services Committee, says he wants a briefing on whether “targets” have been able to escape or “harden themselves” during the five days since U.S. troops were killed.
“Huge expenditures on precision munitions are required from increasingly depleted stockpiles,” he continued.
The targets included locations associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, such as command headquarters and ammunition depots.
The massive operation comes a week after Iranian-backed militias attacked the Tower 22 base near Jordan’s borders with Syria and Iraq.
Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46, Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Specialist Breonna Moffett, 23, were killed and dozens of troops were injured.
Specialist Breonna Moffett, 23, from Savannah, Georgia, has been identified as one of the soldiers killed in the drone strike
The attacks come almost a week after Iran-backed militias attacked the Tower 22 base near Jordan’s borders with Syria and Iraq.
Biden has warned militias that have attacked U.S. troops and commercial ships hundreds of times in recent months that they will not be hit just once.
The President attended the dignified handover ceremony for the three slain troops at Dover Air Base earlier on Friday.
He held his hand over his heart as he watched their flag-draped coffins being carried across the tarmac after returning to their home turf.
Despite US aggression, Biden has insisted he does not want a broader war in Iran.
