https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-fighter-jets-strike-iran-backed-targets-in-iraq-after-repeated-attacks-on-us-bases/US forces carried out strikes against two sites in Iraq early on Wednesday in retaliation for attacks by “Iran and Iran-backed groups,” US Central Command said.
The US military “conducted discrete, precision strikes against two facilities in Iraq,” CENTCOM said on X, previously Twitter.
“The strikes were in direct response to the attacks against US and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups,” the post added, and come the day after a previous US airstrike killed multiple Iranian-backed militiamen in Iraq.
The US fighter jets struck a Kataeb Hezbollah operations center and a Kataeb Hezbollah Command and Control node near Al Anbar and Jurf al Saqr, south of Baghdad, on Tuesday, two defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide additional sensitive details of the attacks.
Kataeb Hezbollah said in a statement that the two US strikes south of Baghdad early Wednesday “left eight martyrs” and “will not go unpunished.”
Hours earlier, a warplane struck a militia facility where Iranian-backed forces had fired a short-range ballistic missile at American and allied personnel in the country, the Pentagon said.
It was the first time the United States has announced a strike on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq since targeting Tehran-linked sites in Syria on three occasions in recent weeks, in response to a spike in attacks on American personnel.