BEIRUT, Lebanon — Since President Biden entered the White House, Iranian-backed militants across the Middle East have struck an airport in Saudi Arabia with an exploding drone, and are accused of assassinating a critic in Lebanon and of targeting American military personnel at an airport in northern Iraq, killing a Filipino contractor and wounding six others. On Thursday, the world got its first glimpse of how Mr. Biden is likely to approach one of the greatest security concerns of American partners in the region: the network of militias that are backed by Iran and committed to subverting the interests of the United States and its allies. United States officials said that overnight airstrikes ordered by Mr. Biden hit a collection of buildings on the Syrian side of a border crossing with Iraq on Thursday and targeted members of the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and an affiliated group. A Kataib Hezbollah official said that one of his group’s fighters had been killed in the airstrikes. A statement by the group later described the dead fighter as a member of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of paramilitaries that includes Kataib Hezbollah and is officially part of Iraqi government security forces.

Source: International New York Times February 26, 2021 13:35 UTC