The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes Tuesday in Iraq, most likely killing militants and destroying three facilities used by Iranian proxies who had targeted American and coalition troops, US officials said.
According to Adrienne Watson, a representative of the National Security Council, the American strikes were in retaliation for a series of assaults, including a drone attack hours earlier by members of Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups on the Erbil air base in Iraq. The drone strike injured three American service members, one of them seriously, he said.
“My prayers are with the brave Americans who were injured,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement.
The latest attacks targeted facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia group considered a proxy for Iran. The United States blames Iran and militias aligned with it for what has become a near-daily barrage of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. The Biden administration has sought to calibrate retaliatory airstrikes to ultimately deter such groups while avoiding a broader war.
After Biden was briefed on the Erbil attack on Christmas morning, he directed the Defense Department to prepare response options, White House officials said. Later in the day, the president authorized strikes that took place around 8:45 p.m. Eastern time.
Biden singled out Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated facilities that had been used to launch unmanned aerial attacks, officials said.
Last month, the United States struck an operations center and command and control node south of Baghdad used by Kataib Hezbollah. The group’s political wing is part of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s coalition.
Following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen launched a series of attacks against American troops and bases and commercial ships transiting the Red Sea. The Biden administration has retaliated against militants in Iraq. and Syria, but has so far avoided hitting Yemen’s Houthi militants who have targeted traffic in the Red Sea.
In a statement, US Central Command said early assessments indicated that the latest US airstrikes in Iraq destroyed the targeted facilities and most likely killed a number of militants. The statement said there were no indications of civilian casualties.
“These strikes are intended to hold accountable those elements directly responsible for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria and to reduce their ability to continue attacks,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla of U.S. Central Command said in the statement . “We will always protect our forces.”
