The New Zealand Herald

US strikes Iran-aligned group after troops hurt in Iraq drone attack

United States President Joe Biden ordered the US military to carry out retaliator­y airstrikes against Iranianbac­ked militia groups after three US service members were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

According to US Central Command, the retaliator­y strikes on the three sites “destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants”.

National Security Council spokespers­on Adrienne Watson said one of the US troops suffered critical injuries in the attack on Tuesday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilised a one-way attack drone.

Iraqi officials said that US strikes targeting militia sites yesterday killed one militant and wounded 18.

Iran announced on Tuesday that an Israeli strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus killed one of its top generals, Seyed Razi Mousavi, who had been a close companion of General Qassem Soleimani, the former head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Soleimani was slain in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.

Iranian officials vowed revenge for the killing of Mousavi, but didn’t immediatel­y launch a retaliator­y strike. The militia attack on Tuesday in northern Iraq was launched prior to the strike in Syria that killed Mousavi.

The latest attack on US troops follows months of escalating threats and actions against American forces in the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the devastatin­g war in Gaza.

Iranian-backed militias have carried out more than 100 attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than two months ago.

In a statement yesterday, Sudani condemned both the militia attack in Irbil and the US response.

Attacks on “foreign diplomatic mission headquarte­rs and sites hosting military advisers from friendly nations . . . infringe upon Iraq’s sovereignt­y and are deemed unacceptab­le under any circumstan­ces”, the statement said.

However, it added that that the retaliator­y strikes by the US on “Iraqi military sites” — referring to the militia — “constitute a clear hostile act.”

Sudani said some of those injured in the strikes were civilians.

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