U.S. Air Force fighter jets bombed buildings in eastern Syria on Thursday, with the Pentagon claiming it successfully targeted “Iranian-backed militant groups.” Iranian media said the airstrikes killed 17 fighters. The Pentagon called the assault a response to recent rocket attacks on U.S. forces in northern Iraq. Those attacks came more than a year after Iraq’s parliament voted to expel U.S. troops — an order that’s been ignored by both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Thursday’s assault is the first known military action ordered by President Biden. California Congressmember Ro Khanna condemned the attack, saying, “There is absolutely no justification for a president to authorize a military strike that is not in self-defense against an imminent threat without congressional authorization. We need to extricate from the Middle East, not escalate.”