Biden orders airstrikes against infrastructure used by 'Iranian-backed militant groups' in Syria

• The US launched airstrikes Thursday night against "Iranian-backed militant groups" in Syria.

• The Defense Department said the strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden.

• The strikes came after rocket attacks targeting US forces in Iraq.

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US President Joe Biden ordered the military to carry out airstrikes against the assets of "Iranian-backed militant groups" in Syria on Thursday evening, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The strikes come after militants last week fired rockets that hit an Iraqi airbase used by the US military. That attack killed a US military contractor and wounded nine others.

The Iranian government supports a number of militant groups in Iraq and Syria and has pledged continued retaliation for the January 2020 killing of its general, Qassim Suleimani. That assassination came after Iraqi militant groups, days earlier, had killed another US military contractor in a rocket attack.