US attacks Iran-linked facilities in Iraq

The United States carried out a new round of airstrikes in Iraq early Wednesday, the second in about a day, destroying two facilities used by Iranian allies targeting U.S. and coalition forces, U.S. defense officials said.

The latest rounds in the tit-for-tat attacks between the United States and Iran-backed fighters took place in Iraq, a departure from US practice of attacking targets mainly in Syria.

This time, the United States attacked an operations center and command and control hub south of Baghdad used by Kataib Hezbollah, a militia group in Iraq that is considered a proxy of Iran. The political wing of Kataib Hezbollah is part of the coalition of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq.

A defense official said the military could not provide a casualty assessment.

The strikes came after the Biden administration recently escalated its attacks. Just more than 24 hours earlier, a U.S. military gunship fired on three Iranian-backed militants Monday evening, who the Pentagon said were part of an attack on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Unlike this exchange, which Pentagon officials said was timely after a US warplane in the area witnessed the ballistic missile attack on Al Asad Air Base and retaliated, the attacks were planned for Wednesday morning, at its at least for a few hours.

In the earlier attack, a Pentagon spokeswoman said, the militants had moved to their vehicle after firing missiles at the Al Asad air base, one of the last remaining Iraqi bases where US troops are stationed. She spotted the gunship, an AC-130, from the air, she said.

“The militants were targeted because the AC-130 was able to determine the point of origin,” spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday. “We had an aircraft that could identify where the ballistic missile was shot down at close range, and that allowed us to take action.”

The US strikes followed others in eastern Syria last week against facilities used by Iran and its allies. Officials said last week’s U.S. attacks killed at least six and possibly seven people. The Biden administration had previously carried out airstrikes that officials said were aimed at deterring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militias it supports in Syria and Iraq, but U.S. officials had said they had caused no known casualties before last week .

The administration blames Iran and its affiliated militias, known as the Axis of Resistance, for what has become a daily barrage of missile and drone attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

The latest attack came nearly two weeks after U.S. warplanes struck an ammunition warehouse in eastern Syria and then several buildings in the region that the Pentagon said were used for training, logistics and ammunition storage, as well as a safe house serving as a command headquarters. . An earlier series of US retaliatory strikes took place on October 27.

Until last week, President Biden had rejected the Pentagon’s proposed more aggressive bombing options for fear of provoking a broader conflict with Iran. But Monday’s US attack was the second to result in fatalities. US officials say there have been 66 attacks by Iranian-backed militias on US troops and bases since October 17.