US launches airstrikes in Iraq after troops injured in drone attacks

Middle East, News, US December 27, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

U.S. President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes against Iranian-backed militant group, Kataib Hezbollah, in Iraq on December 26, 2023. The airstrikes were launched in response to the drone attack on U.S. military personnel at Erbil Air Base in Northern Iraq.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the airstrikes were carried out in three different facilities in Northern Iraq following the orders by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin briefed the president about the attacks on the U.S. forces in Erbil Air Base in the White House. Several options were presented to the president, and Biden ordered the strikes during that call. The CENTCOM did not provide the details about the damage or casualties because of the airstrikes, however, it said that “there are no indications that any civilian lives were affected,”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier announced the overnight strikes, saying that “U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq.”

A statement from U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the U.S. airstrikes on “three locations utilized by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups focused specifically on unmanned aerial drone activities.”

The Iraqi government also released a statement regarding the attack and reported that one “serviceman” was killed and 18 others, “including civilians,” were injured. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani opposed the U.S.’s military activities in Iraq and referred to the airstrikes as “hostile acts” that “infringe upon Iraq’s sovereignty and are deemed unacceptable under any circumstances or justification.”

*^{A fighter of the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia group and a man inspect the site of a U.S. airstrike, in Hilla, Iraq December 26, 2023. (Image Credit: Reuters/Alaa al-Marjani)}*

In addition, the Iraqi government emphasized that these attacks have the potential to damage the relations between the two countries. The statement characterized the actions as clearly hostile and unconstructive, stating that they do not serve the long-term common interests of both nations.

Separately, an Israeli airstrike outside the Syrian capital Damascus on December 25, 2023, killed a senior military general from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. General Sayyed Razi Mousavi was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.

“I won’t comment on foreign reports, these or others in the Middle East,” Israeli Defense Forces Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in response to a reporter’s question at a nightly press conference. “The Israeli military obviously has a job to protect the security interests of Israel,” he added.

The attack was carried out in Damascus’s Sayeda Zainab neighborhood, located near a Shiite Muslim shrine. The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, said that Mousavi was “martyred while serving as an adviser for the resistance front, defending holy shrines in Syria as well as safeguarding Islamic ideals.” He threatened that the “Israeli regime will definitely pay for this crime.”

Hezbollah in a statement called Mousavi “one of the best of brothers who worked to support the Islamic resistance in Lebanon for decades of his honorable life.”

a senior adviser for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Razi Moussavi (L) with IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani — ^{This undated picture released by Iran’s Tasnim news agency shows Razi Moussavi (L), a senior adviser for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), alongside IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in 2020. (Image Credit: Tasnim News)}

Iran has deployed numerous high-ranking military officials in Syria in the capacity of “advisers”, who are tasked to assist in the training and coordination of large numbers of Shiite militia fighters from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, in the ongoing conflict. Additionally, military commanders in Iran are also collaborating closely with fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah in Syria.