U.S. airstrikes hit Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq after drone attack

U.S. strikes targeted three areas utilized by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups for aerial drone actions, Nationwide Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in an announcement.

President Biden was immediately briefed on the assault on U.S. personnel, Watson said, together with that he directed the retaliatory strikes.

Iran-backed militia groups have waged a spate of attacks on U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria, as anger throughout the Heart East grows over U.S. help for Israel’s military advertising and marketing marketing campaign in Gaza, which has killed higher than 20,000 people. The Washington Submit last month reported that since Oct. 17, U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria had confronted near-daily assaults from rocket fireplace and one-way drones.

The Biden administration has carried out associated retaliatory strikes in Syria, along with on an Iranian weapons facility and on web sites associated to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in October and November.

The administration is aware that any overreaction to the assaults on U.S. personnel could inflame a broader regional battle. “Whereas we don’t search to escalate battle throughout the space, we’re devoted and completely able to take further important measures to protect our people and our facilities,” Austin said throughout the assertion Monday.

About 3,500 U.S. troops keep in Iraq and Syria to cease a resurgence of the Islamic State extremist group. Iran has prolonged backed militias in an effort to dislodge U.S. presence throughout the space.

“These strikes are supposed to carry accountable these elements immediately answerable for assaults on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria and degrade their capability to proceed assaults,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.

In line with the statement by Centcom, early assessments level out that the airstrikes Monday most likely killed a “number of Kataib Hezbollah militants.” The Shiite militant group was designated a worldwide terrorist group by the State Department in 2009.