Military planned a second airstrike on Syria — but Biden called it off to prevent civilian casualties: report

On Thursday, NBC News reported that President Joe Biden called off a planned second military strike on Syria, because he did not want to run the risk of civilian casualties.

"Because of the presence of civilians, only one target was bombed in last week's operation, which came in retaliation for recent rocket attacks on U.S. personnel that the Pentagon blamed on Iranian-backed Shiite militia in Iraq, the administration official and a Defense official said," reported Dan De Luce and Carol Lee. "The president made the decision to cancel the separate air strike after military reconnaissance revealed a woman and two children in the courtyard of the intended target, according to the senior administration official."

"The target that was bombed last week by U.S. warplanes was a logistics waystation in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said was used by Iranian-backed militia," said the report. "U.S. officials blamed a deadly Feb. 15 rocket attack on a U.S.-led coalition base in Irbil in northern Iraq on the paramilitary groups."

The Pentagon estimated that the strike killed one fighter and wounded two, although a London-based monitoring group puts the total at 22 fighters dead.

These events come as the Biden administration tries to get Iran back into compliance with the multi-nation nuclear agreement brokered by President Barack Obama — which Iran has stated it is unwilling to do until sanctions are removed.