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Reuters

The United States carried out two series of strikes in Iraq against Iranian-backed militants, US officials said on Tuesday, in the first publicly reported US responses in Iraq to dozens of recent attacks against troops in the region.
Until this week, the United States had been reluctant to retaliate in Iraq because of the delicate political situation there.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has limited control over the Iranian-backed militias, whose support he needed to win power a year ago and who now form a powerful bloc in his governing coalition.
The strike on Tuesday evening targeted two facilities in Iraq, the US military said in a statement.

“The strikes were in direct response to the attacks against US and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups,” the statement said.
The strike by fighter aircraft targeted and destroyed a Kataeb Hezbollah operations centre and a Kataeb Hezbollah Command and Control node near Al Anbar and Jurf al Saqr, south of Baghdad, a US defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
US carries out air strikes in Syria against Iran-linked facilities
Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah militia is a powerful armed faction with close ties to Iran.
The official said there were Kataeb Hezbollah personnel present, but an assessment was ongoing about casualties.
About 24 hours earlier, US forces were attacked at an airbase west of Baghdad and a US military AC-130 aircraft responded in self-defence, killing a number of Iranian-backed militants, US officials said.
Ain al-Asad airbase was attacked by a close-range ballistic missile that resulted in eight injuries and minor damage to infrastructure, two US officials said.




The United States had so far limited its response to the 66 attacks against its forces in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, claimed by Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups, to three separate sets of strikes in Syria.
At least 62 US personnel have suffered minor injuries or traumatic brain injuries in the attacks.
The attacks began on October 17 and have been linked by Iraqi militia groups to US support for Israel in its bombardment of Gaza following attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.
The attacks against US targets have ended a year-long unilateral truce that Iraqi factions, some formed in the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion to fight US troops and others in 2014 to fight Islamic State, declared with Washington.
Social media accounts linked to Iran-aligned Iraqi militias published a statement in the name of the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” mourning a member who they said had been killed in battle against US forces on Tuesday, without elaborating.
His killing is the first reported casualty in Iraq linked to the Gaza war, which has drawn in other factions in Iran’s network of regional militias, known as the Axis of Resistance, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The United States has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq on a mission it says aims to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries before being defeated.


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Middle East

US forces carry out strikes against Iran-backed militia in Iraq

The Pentagon in Washington. US forces carried out new strikes against two sites in Iraq. File photo: AP

A November 8, 2023, US strike on a weapons warehouse in eastern Syria. Photo: US Department of Defence via AP

US carries out air strikes in Syria against Iran-linked facilities

A November 8, 2023, US strike on a weapons warehouse in eastern Syria. On Sunday, the US carried out more strikes. Photo: US Department of Defence via AP

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. File photo: AP

Yemen Houthis seize ship in Red Sea with link to Israeli company, take crew members hostage

The Galaxy Leader in 2018. File photo: Owen Foley via Reuters

US bases in Syria and Iraq targeted by drone attacks as destroyer stops missiles from Yemen

Pentagon spokesman, Brigadier General Pat Ryder. Photo: AFP

The US Navy destroyer USS Carney. File photo: Reuters

Israel-Gaza war: Iran and US wary of wider conflict even as Tehran fuels proxy wars

Israeli soldiers take part in an military exercise in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights near the Lebanon border on Wednesday. Lebanon’s southern border has seen tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Photo: AFP

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi (left) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) attend an emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Riyadh on November 11. Photo: AFP

Members of Hezbollah carry the coffin of Hezbollah member Abbas Shuman, who was killed in southern Lebanon amid tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Photo: Reuters

News

World

US aircraft struck two facilities south of Baghdad in retaliation for attacks by ‘Iran and Iran-backed groups’
The number of attacks against Americans and allies in Iraq and Syria has risen to 66 since October 17


It was the first time the United States has announced a strike on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq, in response to a spike in attacks on American personnel in the region.
