The United States on Thursday launched airstrikes in eastern Syria, targeting sites connected to Shia militias groups backed by the Iranian regime believed to be involved in recent attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq. The retaliatory strikes marked President Joe Biden’s first overt use of military force. “These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. A rocket attack on an airport near the city of Erbil on Feb. 15 in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region killed a civilian contractor with the American-led military coalition, and injured six others, including four American contractors and a U.S. service member. Biden administration officials condemned that attack, but as recently as this week officials indicated they had not determined for certain who carried it out. Officials have noted that in the past, …