The United States on Tuesday carried out military strikes against three facilities in western Iraq associated with Iran-linked militias that American officials say attacked a major base in Iraq on Saturday, according to the Pentagon’s Central Command, injuring at least four U.S. service members.
The American strikes near Iraq’s border with Syria on Tuesday hit headquarters, training locations and storage areas for rockets, missiles and drones belonging to the Kataib Hezbollah militia and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq, according to Central Command.
“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,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement.
The attack against Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on Saturday was the latest and the most serious of about 151 such rocket and missile strikes directed at U.S. troops based in Iraq and Syria since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza started.
At least 10 rockets and seven short-range ballistic missiles were fired in a single barrage at the base, with two missiles making it through Patriot and air defense systems, in the most successful attack the militias had carried out so far. At least four U.S. service members have been treated for traumatic brain injuries, but all have since returned to duty, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The attack on Saturday underscored how the region has been pulled into a broader conflict. In another spillover from the war in Gaza, the United States and Britain carried out large-scale military strikes on Monday against eight sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants.
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