At least five fighters from a pro-Iranian group were killed in Iraq early Wednesday by American strikes on two towns south of the capital Baghdad, two security sources told AFP.
Earlier, the US military’s Middle East command, Centcom, announced that it had carried out “precision strikes” at two locations in Iraq in retaliation for recent attacks by pro-Iranian groups against US troops and international coalition forces. Anti-jihadists in Iraq and Syria.
The series of American attacks is the first in Iraq amid rising regional tensions in more than a month following the war between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas in Gaza.
“Five members of the Hezbollah Brigades were killed by an airstrike in the Jurf al-Sakhr sector,” an Iraqi security service official told AFP on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
An official from Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of former paramilitaries integrated into the regular armed forces, reported “five dead and four injured” among the influential group’s fighters.
Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Tuesday that US forces and the international anti-jihadist coalition stationed in Iraq and Syria have been fighting since October 17, 10 days after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil. They were the target of rocket fire or drone attacks 66 times.
Washington has already bombed Iran-linked sites in Syria three times in retaliation for attacks on US forces. The United States also imposed sanctions on seven individuals linked to two pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq, including the Hezbollah Brigades.