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In the hours before the United States carried out strikes against Iran-backed militants on Friday, Washington hit Tehran with more familiar weapons: sanctions and criminal charges.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on officers and officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Irans premier military force, for threatening the integrity of water utilities and for helping manufacture Iranian drones. And it unsealed charges against nine people for selling oil to finance the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

The timing seemed designed to pressure the Revolutionary Guards and its most elite unit, the Quds Force, at a moment of extraordinary tension in the Middle East. Although the sanctions have been brewing for some time and the charges were filed earlier under seal, the region has been in turmoil for months.

The actions are part of a coordinated governmentwide effort to disrupt Irans efforts to use illicit oil sales to fund terrorism, and to push back on the countrys increasingly capable offensive cyberoperations. In the 15 years since the United States mounted a major cyberattack on Irans nuclear facilities, the country has trained a generation of hackers and struck back at Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States, among others. Two American officials said the United States conducted cyberoperations against Iranian targets on Friday but declined to provide details.

The effects of sanctions and indictments are hard to measure. Few Iranian officers or officials keep assets in Western banks or travel to the United States, meaning the sanctions may have little practical effect. While the indictments and sanctions have a psychological element, demonstrating to Iranians and their business associates around the world that Western intelligence agencies are often tracking their movements and their transactions, actual arrests and trials are infrequent.

The reason that we bring these cases is, we know that the money Iran obtains from the illicit sale of oil is used to fund its malign activities around the world, Matthew G. Olsen, who heads the national security division of the Justice Department, said on Friday. The threats posed by Iran and the destabilizing effects of its actions have only come into sharper relief since the attacks of Oct. 7, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people.

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U.S. Hits Back at Iran With Sanctions, Criminal Charges and Airstrikes - The New York Times

WASHINGTON Meeting privately with national security aides this week, President Joe Biden raised a question, two people briefed on the discussion said: If he ordered military action to avenge the deaths of three U.S. soldiers in Jordan, would that jeopardize the delicate talks over the release of American hostages in Gaza?

When aides eased such concerns, he decided that he would proceed with retaliatory measures, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the presidents calculus.

Biden settled on a counterattack plan that is expected to unfold over multiple days, possibly weeks, U.S. officials told NBC News.

American forces are expected to hit targets in different countries outside Iran in response to the drone strike by Iranian-backed militants, which also injured more than 30 service members, U.S. officials said.

The operation, which officials say hasnt begun, figures to be Biden's most forceful response yet to militia groups that have launched more than 150 attacks against U.S. forces since the war between Israel and Hamas started Oct. 7.

It's also among the biggest and riskiest tests that Biden has faced. He must keep the war from escalating but also respond to the attack in Jordan in a way that deters future assaults and signals to Americas enemies that they cant kill U.S. forces with impunity.

Complicating matters further, Biden is up for re-election and eager to avoid any impression that he is a weak commander in chief whom adversaries can intimidate.

It's a tough balance to maintain in a fast-moving conflict. Any counterattack that destroys Iranian assets or kills Iranian-backed militia fighters risks a tit-for-tat response that could draw the U.S. deeper into the sort of Middle East quagmire that has bedeviled presidents for decades.

It is probably the most important moment in his presidency, said Brett Bruen, who was the director of global engagement in the Obama White House. If he can apply a set of military strikes that push back Iranian efforts to destabilize the region and also avoid a war with Iran, that will be a strong proof point for his re-election. If he can thread that needle through the next few months, were going to hear that refrain on the campaign trail.

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, has looked to capitalize on the crisis, posting on his social media site that the drone attack arose from Bidens weakness and surrender.

Trumps statement drew a fierce response from Biden allies.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., wrote on X that the deaths of U.S. service members are NEVER something to politicize. We should be focused on holding those responsible for this attack accountable, keeping our troops safe, and avoiding a war in the Middle East.

Its doubtful that Trump would applaud anything Biden did. But some conservatives whove broken with Trump contend that the Biden administrations muted response to smaller attacks by Iranian-linked militias invited the lethal assault that killed the three service members.

Biden ordered strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria in reprisal for previous attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, describing them as proportionate in scale. Yet John Bolton, a national security adviser in the Trump White House who has become a sharp critic of Trump, likened them to pinpricks" that werent sufficient to deter Iranian aggression.

You cant leave Americans vulnerable and say were only going to wait until they are dead before we do anything, Bolton said in an interview.

He suggested taking more aggressive action that would ratchet up the cost to Iran, including sinking Iranian ships in the Red Sea and attacking Irans secretive Quds Force units in the western part of Iran.

The point is you need to make them feel pain, Bolton said.

Voters typically focus on the economy in election years, with foreign policy a second-tier concern. But Bidens support for Israel in the war with Hamas has caused fissures in his political base and focused attention on the aid he is providing to Israel as it tries to rout Hamas.

Biden has called upon Israeli leaders to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza and ensure that more humanitarian aid gets to the people whove lost their homes and livelihoods during Israels offensive.

He isnt backing off his support for Israel, however. During a fundraising swing through Florida this week, he told guests that he believes that without Israel, Jews wouldnt be safe in the world, two people familiar with his remarks said in interviews.

Nor is he hiding his differences with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israels conduct of the war. Biden told the attendees at a recent fundraiser that when he met with Netanyahu in Israel after the war began, he saw a picture of the two of them together. Jokingly, he asked Netanyahu whether he puts the picture up when Biden arrives and takes it down as soon as he leaves, the people said.

Republicans see the growing Middle East tensions as a vulnerability for Biden in the coming election. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, put out a statement after the drone attack that faulted the Biden administration for its failure to respond to previous attacks."

Yet Trump had his own struggles with calming the region and protecting U.S. troops on his watch.

More than 100 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries in January 2020 the start of Trumps final year in office when Iran fired missiles at two bases in Iraq.

That attack was in response to the killing of Qassem Soleimani, who headed the Quds Force. The U.S. assassination of Soleimani, in turn, followed an attack by Iranian proxies in Iraq that killed a U.S. contractor and injured four service members.

The year before, Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone in what American officials said was international airspace. Trump prepared to retaliate against Iranian targets but backed off at the last minute, saying killing Iranians over the loss of an uncrewed drone would be a disproportionate response.

Overall, through three years of Bidens term, about 16 U.S. service members have died as a result of hostile action, according to statistics provided by the Defense Department. By contrast, 50 died at a similar point in Trumps term. (Biden ended the 20-year war in Afghanistan during the first year of his term, pulling U.S. troops out of the country. Thirteen service members died in an attack as the U.S. was completing its withdrawal.)

Attempts by far-right congressional Republicans to politicize our national security are illogical and detrimental to our safety and security, said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman. In fact, these Republican officials never criticized the previous administration whenthe same militias attacked American troops, including in 2020.

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Biden weighs how the response to Iran could affect Israel-Hamas negotiations and his own political fate - NBC News

The United States is imposing sanctions today on four entities operating as front companies and subsidiaries for U.S.-designated Hamed Dehghan and Pishtazan Kavosh Gostar Boshra (PKGB). These entities have supplied materials and sensitive technology for Irans ballistic missile and UAV programs, including Shahed-series UAVs being used by the Russian military against Ukraine.

Iranian-made UAVs are used to commit acts of terror, including dozens of attacks by Iran- aligned militia groups on U.S. personnel that have resulted in the deaths of U.S. soldiers. Iran- backed Houthis have also launched attacks on commercial vessels and U.S. naval assets using Iranian-made UAVs and missiles. The United States is committed to utilizing all available means to expose and hold individuals and entities accountable for contributing to the Iranian regimes proliferation, which directly harms U.S. personnel in the region and contributes to regional instability in the Middle East and Russias war against Ukraine.

The U.S. Department of the Treasurys actions were taken pursuant to the Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferations of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. For more information on todays action, please see the Department of the Treasurys press release.

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Imposing Sanctions on Those Supporting Iran's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and Missile Production - United States ... - Department of State

The Islamic Republic authorities in Iran are going on an execution binge, using the spiraling instability and conflicts in the Middle East in which they are complicit as a smokescreen for their crimes against the Iranian people.

On January 22, the mother of Mohammad Ghobadlou, a 23-year-old street protester in the Woman Life Freedom uprising in Iran, made an emotional videotape pleading for her sons life to be spared. Ghobadlou was bipolar and his death sentence had been quashed by the Supreme Court. A retrial involving an adequate mental health assessment had been ordered in July 2023.

Despite this, his execution took place a day after his mothers appeal, with only a 12-hour notice to his lawyer because Irans Chief Justice vetoed the retrial and made sure Ghobadlou was secretly sentenced to death. This is not the first nor the last execution carried out in Iran in flagrant violation of the Islamic Republics international human rights obligations, and with utter contempt for the rule of law. He is at least the ninth protester to be executed in connection to the 2022 protests. Farhad Salimi, an Iranian Kurdish political prisoner subjected to torture-tainted confession" and whose decade-long pleas for a fair retrial were ignored, was arbitrarily executed on the same day as Ghobadlou. Less than a week after their execution, four more Kurdish dissidents who were forcibly disappeared in July 2022 Pejman Fatehi, Mohsan Mazloum, Mohammad Hazhir Faramarzi and Wafa Azarbar were also executed after grossly unfair and secretive trials, and allegations of torture. Adding insult to injury, the authorities are refusing to return the bodies to the families for burial.

A labor strike has ensued in Irans Kurdistan, in protest against these abhorrent state murders, and in opposition to the death penalty this regime has used disproportionatley against Irans persecuted ethnic and religious minorities.

These dissidents, like the thousands of political prisoners put to death by Iran in the past four-and-a-half decades, were killed in order to spread fear among an increasingly restless and defiant population. The more than 800 people reportedly executed there in 2023 was the highest per capita in the world. The rate has ramped up, and the usual international condemnations or efforts to engage Iran have not been effective enough to stop the carnage. Why? Because outside Iran, the political cost of the Islamic Republics crimes and repression is too insignificant to stop its leaders. So, they continue to kill.

There are limits to what activists inside Iran can do to stop the regimes execution machine. After Ghobadlous execution, 61 women political prisoners in Evin Prison, including the anti-death penalty activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi, commenced a hunger strike, calling for the end of executions in Iran. But the prisoners sacrifices can only be effective if the international community supports their demand.

The world must show the Islamic Republic authorities that deliberately and slowly breaking the necks of 806 individuals--hanging is the official manner of execution--in one year is simply intolerable, and neither "business as usual," or diplomatic relations and engagement can continue. Iranians who are risking their very lives to oppose state violence deserve assurances from the international community that they are not on their own.

Global lawmakers should publicly support the political prisoners who are on hunger strike behind their prison walls to stop executions in Iran. This must demand an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, and call for the mandate of the UN Fact Finding Mission to Iran investigating the 2022 death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini and the ensuing protests which has been denied information and access to Iran be extended beyond March 2024. We must call for the UN Human Rights Commissioners representatives, scheduled to travel to Iran on February 2, 2024, to postpone their trip so as not to enable the Islamic Republic authorities to deceive the international community by feigning cooperation with international human rights bodies, and that the they make any trip contingent upon the Iranian authorities agreeing to a moratorium on the death penalty and granting unrestricted access to the political prisoners of their choice, including those on death row, and to victims families.

As the Iranian people continue to risk everything to stand for their most fundamental rights in defiance of their unrepresentative and incorrigible authorities, the United Nations and its member states have a moral obligation to prevent their human rights mechanisms from being undermined and manipulated by the Islamic Republic, to legitimize itself on the world stage and continue its atrocities unrestrained.

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While the World Looks Elsewhere, Iran Hurries Executions - TIME

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden attend the dignified transfer of the remains of three U.S. service members killed in a drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Friday. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden attend the dignified transfer of the remains of three U.S. service members killed in a drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Friday.

The U.S. military has mounted a series of air and missile strikes against Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria, NPR has confirmed, in retaliation for a suicide drone strike that killed three American soldiers on Sunday at a remote base in Jordan.

The airstrikes, which used more than 125 precision munitions, came at 4 p.m. ET Friday and struck more than 85 targets, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

"The facilities that were struck included command and control operations, centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aired vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces," CENTCOM said, referring to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters Friday that in all seven facilities used by IRGC and its proxies were hit three in Iraq and four in Syria. The strikes, he said, occurred over 30 minutes. The Iraqi government was informed beforehand, he said.

The targets were chosen to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

The U.S. strikes are far more extensive and deadly than those that have been launched since last October, when the Israeli-Gaza war began and pro-Iranian groups like the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq started an uptick of attacks.

That's because the Jan. 28 attacks on a U.S. support base in Jordan was the highest death toll of troops in the Middle East in at least a decade. Three Army Reserve soldiers from Georgia were killed when an attack drone slammed into their sleeping quarters. Another three dozen were wounded, a handful seriously. President Biden traveled Friday to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the bodies of the three soldiers returned in flag-draped silver cases.

In a statement after the strikes, Biden said: "Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing. The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond."

The U.S. attacks were telegraphed for days. Biden told reporters outside the White House earlier this week he had decided on a response. And lawmakers were told by senior administration officials that the president wanted military options "a level or two up" from the "whack-a-mole strikes we had been doing on (militia) storage and launch sites."

National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the initial American strikes were likely just the beginning.

"It's very possible you will see a tiered approach here," Kirby said, "not just a single action, but potentially multiple actions over a period of time."

Republican lawmakers have pressed Biden to strike Iran itself because it has trained and supported the militia groups that have targeted American troops, while Democrats and Biden himself have been more reluctant about targeting Iran and widening the Israeli-Gaza war into a regional conflict.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis wrote in Bloomberg that the deaths of the three American soldiers required Biden to respond with a "new level of force." That should include "continuous strikes against proxy targets in Syria and Yemen," while working with Iraq "to expand strikes to their country."

Stavridis also said the U.S. should be "prepping for a significant cyber attack" on Iran, including severing its ties to its proxy forces, penetrating its oil and gas infrastructure and reducing its armament production.

Brad Bowman, a Middle East analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said it was essential for the U.S. to "hit back hard to restore tattered American deterrence." But he worried whether the U.S. troops in the region had enough defenses to "prepare for the inevitable counterpunch that will come after U.S. airstrikes." Pentagon officials have been reluctant to talk openly about the possibility of any increased American defenses in the region.

Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute, said it appeared the Biden administration was moving from strikes to deter Iranian-backed militias and Iranian units themselves to efforts that would degrade their power. It all seems like a "campaign," he said, rather than a "single round of strikes."

Lister said that beyond the Iranian-backed militias, there are "plenty of target options" including bases in Syria where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is located to Iranian naval assets, such as the MV Behshad, an Iranian cargo ship suspected of being a spy platform helping Houthi militants target shipping in the Red Sea.

"But that'd feed into the 'regional war' language that the Biden administration remains keen to avoid," Lister said.

The Iranian-backed militias have mounted more than 165 drone, missile and rocket attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since last fall. Most led to minor injuries, though one service member took some shrapnel to the head and was sent back to the U.S. for further treatment.

The U.S. has repeatedly hit targets in Syria and Iraq, though the militias continue to strike at American targets part of Iran's strategy of pushing the U.S. out of the region.

Last October, the U.S. responded with airstrikes by bombing weapons and storage facilities in Syria with F-16 jets.

A few weeks later, the U.S. hit more targets in Syria, including those used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its allies. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, nine workers in the facilities were killed in the strikes.

On Nov. 21, 2023, U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship retaliated against the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah, striking a vehicle near Abu Ghraib, Iraq, in response to an attack the day before. U.S. forces at al Asad Airbase west of Baghdad. According to U.S. assessments, several Iran-backed fighters were killed in the strike. The next day, U.S. fighter jets conducted airstrikes on Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah facilities, killing over eight fighters.

And there were two strikes in December by the U.S. in Iraq, hitting militants near Kirkuk, and killing five as they attempted to fire on U.S. forces. Another one hit a militia base in Hillah, killing one militant and wounding 20 others.

The so-called "axis of resistance" is a network of Iran proxy groups across the region. It includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, a coalition of militias in Iraq that go by the name the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Ansar Allah Houthi forces in Yemen and Iran-linked groups in eastern Syria.

Kataib Hezbollah (which means Party of God Brigades) is not a subsidiary of the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, but both have close links to Iran. KH is considered the most powerful of the Iran-backed militias in the Iraq-based resistance, which has claimed about 160 attacks on U.S. forces since the beginning of the Gaza war.

It was one of the many Shiite militias that fought ISIS starting in 2014 and along with others, was incorporated into Iraq's official security forces in 2019. Before the Gaza war, the group was known for attacks on the U.S. military which it considers to be occupying forces in Iraq, including using roadside bombs manufactured in Iran.

The U.S. killed the founder of KH, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in the same drone strike four years ago in Baghdad that killed Iranian general Quassem Soleimani. Muhandis was also a senior Iraqi government security official and that killing dramatically raised tension in Iraq with U.S. forces.

On Jan. 24, the U.S. struck three bases of Kataib Hezbollah in retaliation for strikes that included an attack on the Ain al-Asad base in Western al-Anbar. U.S. officials have said that the attack on a remote U.S. base in Jordan that killed three service members last week had the fingerprints of KH.

Iran does not exert complete command over the proxies and most, like Lebanon's Hezbollah, have their own domestic agendas.

U.S. troops left Iraq in 2011 but returned in 2014 to fight ISIS alongside Iraqi forces. And now there are 2,550 not in combat, but assisting Iraqis in going after the remnants of ISIS. Now, many of the U.S. troops are stationed in northern Iraq in Erbil, and those troops also support the anti-ISIS fight next door in Syria.

The U.S. also provides hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraq in aid, government development, humanitarian assistance, demining efforts and military sales --more than $16 billion, covering everything from F-16 aircraft to helicopters and radar and small arms. In addition, the U.S. has provided Iraq with excess defense equipment over the recent years 300 large armored vehicles, Humvees, helicopters, body armor all of which contributed to the ISIS fight.

Still, the U.S. airstrikes have created a political problem for the Iraqi government, some of whose parliamentarians have ties to Iran and want to see U.S. forces withdraw from the country. And the latest strikes will certainly add to that headache.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani came to power because Iran, and the militias it supports, backed him. So in between anger over the U.S. role in supplying Israel with weapons for the war in Gaza, and anger over U.S. breaches of Iraqi sovereignty, he faces intense pressure about the future of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Now the U.S. and Iraq are talking about an "evolving" mission for U.S. troops, and there seems to be a disconnect.

An adviser to the Iraqi prime minister said the aim is to come up with what he called a specific and clear timetable for the gradual reduction of the U.S.-led coalition troops in Iraq and to an end to the U.S.-led anti-ISIS mission. The government spokesman, Bassem al-Awadi, told Iraqi state TV viewers that Sudani had repeatedly made clear that Iraq's stability required ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

"He literally said that ending the mission of the international coalition in Iraq is necessary for Iraq," said al-Awadi. "He used the term necessity. And I assure you that when the prime minister uses a term, he means it."

That's not how the U.S. sees it. In a background call recently senior Pentagon and State Department officials said the talks are not about a withdrawal of U.S. troops. They said it's about shaping the future of the U.S. military presence. That presence will be determined, they say, by the strength of ISIS and the capability of Iraqi forces.

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U.S. hits Iranian proxies in Iraq, Syria in retaliation for deadly strikes - NPR