US Central Command said Wednesday that US forces had launched new strikes on two sites in Iraq in response to attacks by “Iran and groups it supports.”
US armed forces “conducted discrete precision strikes against two sites in Iraq,” CENTCOM said in a message posted on X.
The post, which came a day after a previous US airstrike in Iraq killed several Iranian-backed militias, said:
The strikes were in direct response to the attacks against US and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups.
US fighter jets struck two sites south of Baghdad on Wednesday. Hours earlier, a warplane struck a militant site from which Iranian-backed forces fired a short-range ballistic missile at US and allied personnel in the country. Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement:
We can confirm an attack last night by Iran-backed militias using a close-range ballistic missile against US and coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase, which resulted in eight injuries and some minor damage to infrastructure.
The Ain al-Asad airbase in the desert of Iraq’s western Anbar province hosts forces of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq. Ryder said:
Immediately following the attack, a US military AC-130 aircraft in the area conducted a self-defense strike against an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and a number of Iranian-backed militia personnel involved in this attack. This self-defense strike resulted in several enemy KIA (killed in action).
The rise in attacks on US troops is linked to the latest war between Israel and Hamas. The conflict has been escalating since 7 October, when militants of the Palestinian group launched an attack from the Gaza Strip that Israeli authorities believe killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded by launching a sustained air, land and sea campaign against Hamas. The attack killed more than 13,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
According to Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, since 17 October, “US troops have been attacked approximately 66 times – 32 times in Iraq and 34 times in Syria.”
She said the attacks have wounded US service members in about 62 cases. She added that this was the first time such a munition had been used against US troops since the wave of attacks began on 17 October.
