Countries Biden bombed
Executive summary
President Joe Biden’s administration has ordered and overseen U.S. air and drone strikes in Iraq and Syria and directed coordinated strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen; authoritative reporting and government releases document those actions while researchers note additional, sometimes-unidentified counterterrorism air operations in other countries during 2021–2023 [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What counts as “bombed” under Biden: Iraq and Syria confirmed
The most frequently cited and documented targets of U.S. strikes under President Biden are Iraqi and Syrian locations where strikes have been carried out against Iran‑backed militias and other militants; Department of Defense statements describe recent U.S. strikes in both Iraq and Syria in response to attacks on U.S. personnel, and media reporting tallied hundreds of attacks on U.S. forces in those two countries during the Biden years, which led to repeated U.S. retaliatory strikes [1] [2].
2. Yemen: U.S. and U.K. strikes on Houthi positions
In January 2024 the United States, alongside the United Kingdom, conducted coordinated strikes on Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen aimed at deterring attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, a campaign the White House described as protecting Americans and commerce and which drew mixed bipartisan reactions in Congress over escalation risks and legal authority [3].
3. The broader counterterrorism picture: more countries, some unnamed
Researchers at Brown University’s Costs of War project documented that between 2021 and 2023 the U.S. conducted counterterrorism operations in dozens of countries, including air strikes in at least four countries during Biden’s first three years, signalling a footprint that extends beyond the high‑profile Iraq/Syria/Yemen actions even when the publicly named targets are fewer [4].
4. Legal and political controversy over presidential authority
Congressional and legal analysts have repeatedly questioned the administration’s legal basis for many of these strikes, noting that recent 48‑hour reports framed some actions as undertaken under inherent Article II powers rather than fresh Congressional authorization, a stance that has provoked debate about executive war powers and the claimed “self‑defense” rationale [5].
5. Criticism from the left and the right: different grievances, same unease
Progressive critics argue Biden has fallen into the pattern of clandestine or repeated airstrikes without a clear exit strategy or adequate transparency, warning such strikes undercut diplomacy and mirror past administrations’ secrecy, while some lawmakers from both parties have nonetheless supported targeted strikes as necessary defense against attacks on U.S. forces—illustrating a bipartisan split between strategic restraint and immediate force protection imperatives [6] [7] [3].
6. Scale and secrecy: what official counts omit
Advocates and researchers warn that public tallies understate the full scope because some military and intelligence strikes—especially those conducted or overseen by covert programs—are excluded from public Airpower Summaries and can be difficult to verify, a transparency gap highlighted by analyses of bombing data since 2001 and by the cessation of routine Airpower Summary releases in 2020 [7] [8].
7. Caveats and limits of available reporting
Open‑source reporting and government releases confirm strikes in Iraq, Syria, and coordinated strikes involving Yemen’s Houthis, and academic mapping shows air strikes occurred in multiple countries during Biden’s presidency, but the assembled sources do not provide a definitive, exhaustive list tying every discrete strike to a specific country beyond those named—therefore public accounting remains incomplete without access to fuller classified operational data or an official consolidated catalog [1] [4] [3].