US strikes kill 5 Iran-backed militants in Iraq – US, Iraqi officials
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – US airstrikes on two facilities of Iranian-backed militias in Baghdad killed on Wednesday five militants. The strikes were carried out in response to attacks on a US base in western Iraq.
A Pentagon official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the US airstrikes were conducted on two facilities of Iranian-backed militias in the south of Baghdad.
Early on Wednesday, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) said on X that their forces conducted “discrete, precision strikes against two facilities in Iraq,” adding 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.”
US’ airstrikes killed five militants of the Hezbollah Brigades, a group affiliated with Iran within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), according to an Iraqi security force official.
An official in the PMF confirmed the death toll as well.
Earlier on Tuesday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that after Iran-backed militias used a close-range ballistic missile against al-Asad Air Base in Iraq that hosts US and coalition forces, a US military AC-130 aircraft “conducted a self-defense strike against an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and a number of Iranian-backed militia personnel involved in this attack.”
She added that the “self-defense strike” resulted in some fatalities among the Iranian militants.