US President Joe Biden gave the green light for his military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iran-backed militia groups after three servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson confirmed one of the soldiers had experienced critical injuries during the attack.
The strikes were carried out at about 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday in Iraq, less than 13 hours after the troops were attacked. Local outlets reported at least one person died and 24 were injured.
The retaliatory raid on the three sites, “destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants,” US Central Command said.
Watson said: “The President places no higher priority than the protection of American personnel serving in harm’s way.
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“The United States will act at a time and in a manner of our choosing should these attacks continue.”
Iranian-backed militias have carried out dozens of attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than two months ago.
The latest attack on US troops follows months of escalating threats and actions against American forces in the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the devastating war in Gaza.
The dangerous back-and-forth strikes have escalated since Iranian-backed militant groups under the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Syria began striking US facilities.
In November, US fighter jets struck a Kataib Hezbollah operations centre and command and control node, following a short-range ballistic missile attack on US forces at Al-Assad Air Base in western Iraq.
Iranian-backed militias also carried out a drone attack at the same air base in October, causing minor injuries.
The US has also blamed Iran, which has funded and trained Hamas, for attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants against commercial and military vessels through a critical shipping choke point in the Red Sea.
The US has thousands of troops in Iraq training Iraqi forces and combating remnants of the Islamic State group, and hundreds in Syria, mostly on the counter-IS mission.
Defence Secretary Llyod Austin said in a statement: “While we do not seek to escalate conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities.”
The Biden administration has sought to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiralling into a wider regional conflict that either opens up new fronts of Israeli fighting or that draws the US in directly.
The administration’s measured response — where not every attempt on American troops has been met with a counterattack — has drawn criticism from Republicans.
