At least one member of a pro-Iran Iraqi faction was killed and 24 others wounded in dawn strikes Tuesday on three sites in Iraq used by pro-Iranian groups, Iraqi security sources said.
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This announcement comes hours after the United States said it had carried out airstrikes against three pro-Iranian sites in the country.
Questioned by AFP, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Tuesday morning that a strike had targeted a Hachd al-Chaabi site, in Hilla, capital of Babylon province, south of Baghdad. One person was killed and 20 others injured.
Four other people were injured in a second strike in Wassit, in the south of the country. These reports were confirmed by other security sources in Wassit.
Previously, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced in a statement that the US military had “carried out necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataeb Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq”.
These strikes are “a response to a series of attacks against American personnel in Iraq and Syria carried out by Iranian-backed militias, including that of Kataeb Hezbollah, affiliated with Iran, and affiliated groups, against the Erbil air base earlier today,” he stressed.
The Hezbollah Brigades, or Kataeb Hezbollah, have been considered a “terrorist organization” by the US State Department since 2009.
The Erbil attack injured three American personnel on Monday, including one seriously, said Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.
This attack was carried out using an explosive drone and was claimed by the Islamic Resistance group in Iraq, a nebula of fighters from several pro-Iran armed groups – who are also affiliated with Hachd al-Chaabi, former paramilitaries integrated into regular forces.
Attacks attributed to pro-Iranian groups against American troops have increased in Iraq and Syria since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel on October 7.
One hundred and three of them have been identified by Washington since October 17, the majority claimed by the Islamic Resistance group in Iraq, which denounces American support for Israel.
“The United States will act at a time and in a manner of its choosing if these attacks continue,” Ms. Watson further underlined in a press release.
Washington has around 2,500 soldiers in Iraq and 900 in Syria, as part of a system intended to fight against a possible resurgence of the Islamic State (IS) group.
The war between Israel and Hamas was triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group also supported by Iran.