The US unleashed airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq on Tuesday after a weekend rebel assault on an Iraqi airbase that injured multiple American troops, officials said.
The US unleashed airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq on Tuesday after a weekend rebel assault on an Iraqi airbase that injured multiple American troops, officials said.
“Today, at President Biden’s direction, US military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
“These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias,” Austin added.
US Central Command noted that Tuesday’s strikes hit Kataib Hezbollah’s “headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack UAV capabilities.”
The retaliatory attack came after four American soldiers were examined for potential traumatic brain injuries Saturday after a ballistic missile and rocket attack at the Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, ABC News reported.
