US forces attack Iranian-backed militants in Iraq

Middle East, News, US November 24, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

The United States Department of Defense announced on November 21, 2023, that the U.S. military carried out a series of aerial strikes against Iranian-backed militants in Iraq.

The retaliatory actions were reported after multiple close-range ballistic missiles were launched against U.S. and coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq on Monday evening.

The U.S. Central Command confirmed that it carried out precision strikes on two facilities at a separate location. “The strikes were in direct response to the attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups, including the one in Iraq on November 21, which involved use of close-range ballistic missiles,” the CENTCOM said.

In the first publicly reported U.S. responses in Iraq to dozens of recent attacks against troops in the region the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the U.S. military’s AC-130J Ghostrider conducted an airstrike against Iranian-backed militants in Iraq.

It is believed that the U.S. military’s 73rd Special Operations Squadron carried out a series of aerial attacks on the militants. The attacking sorites kept the transponder on while carrying out a ‘self-defense strike’ against militants operating in Iraq on 21 November, allowing the course of the sortie to be monitored in real-time by publicly available flight trackers.

The Department of Defense said that the attack was carried out in response to the ballistic missile attack on the U.S. and coalition forces on Al-Asad Airbase, Iraq. “Immediately following the attack, a U.S. military AC-130 aircraft in the area conducted a self-defense strike against an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and a number of Iranian-backed militia personnel involved in this attack,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said during a press briefing. “This self-defense strike resulted in some hostile fatalities,” she added.

^{An Airman from the 73rd Special Operations Squadron marshals an AC-130J Ghostrider to its parking location after landing at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, on March 29, 2021. (Image Credit: USAF/Captain Renee Douglas)}

U.S. fighter jets struck an operations center and command and control node of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group, near Al Anbar and Jurf al Saqr, south of Baghdad, two defense officials told media anonymously. Militia in Iraq reported that the attack had killed at least eight Kataib Hezbollah members.

Ballistic missile attack

About 24 hours prior to the aerial strike operation, the U.S. forces were attacked at the Al-Asad Airbase in the West of Baghdad. Pentagon statement highlighted that Since October 17, U.S. forces have been attacked 66 times in both Iraq and Syria. However, it was the first time that Al-Asad Airbase was attacked using a ballistic missile.

At least 62 U.S. personnel have suffered minor injuries or traumatic brain injuries in the attacks, the statement said. The frequent rocket and missile attacks on the U.S. military bases have ended a year-long unilateral truce that Iraqi factions, some formed in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion to fight U.S. troops and others in 2014 to fight Islamic State, declared with Washington.

The attacks on the U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria are in response to Israel’s attack on Gaza. Several armed organizations in the Middle East have been actively trying to resist Israel’s attack on Gaza. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed fighters, issued a statement earlier this month claiming responsibility for some of the attacks in Iraq and saying it “heralds more operations” against the “American occupation”.

US soldiers in Syria — *^{U.S. soldiers walk while on patrol by the Suwaydiyah oil fields in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province on Feb 13, 2021. (Image Credit: Delil Souleiman/AFP/via Twitter)}*

The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighboring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces in combating and preventing the resurgence of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries. Following the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine, the U.S. has been facing severe backlash in the region for its support of the Israeli side.