US carries out retaliatory strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq

The U.S. military carried out strikes on Iran-backed targets in Iraq on Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said, retaliating against a series of Iranian-backed attacks against the U.S. in the region.

“Today, at President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq,” Austin said in a statement Tuesday evening. “These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias.”

U.S. and Iraqi troops were injured Saturday in a missile attack on a base in western Iraq, leaving some Americans in need of evaluation for traumatic brain injuries, U.S. Central Command
said over the weekend.