A drone strike by an Iran-linked terror group on a military base in Iraq early Monday morning injured three U.S. soldiers, the Pentagon said, prompting President Biden to order retaliatory strikes.
The attack on the Erbil air base in northern Iraq was carried out by Kataib Hezbollah militants, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. Austin announced that one of the three wounded soldiers was in critical condition.
In response, Mr. Biden — after briefing and having a phone call with Austin and his national security team — ordered retaliatory strikes against “three sites used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups specifically focused on unmanned aerial drone activity.” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
According to U.S. Central Command, the retaliatory strikes on the three sites, all located in Iraq, were carried out at 8:45 p.m. Eastern Time and “are believed to have killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah fighters.”
CENTCOM said no civilians were injured or killed.
Iraqi officials said one militant was killed and 18 wounded in the U.S. strikes, the Associated Press reports.
Baghdad described the US attacks as a “hostile act,” reports AFP news agency. The administration called it an “unacceptable attack on Iraqi sovereignty” that damaged Iraq-U.S. relations
Since Hamas' violent terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, there have been dozens of attacks by Iran-backed militias on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria – a group that U.S. officials have long said received financial and material support from the United States Iran receives.
And in response, U.S. forces launched multiple rounds of strikes against weapons facilities and Iranian-backed fighters that defense officials say are linked to Iran.
On Nov. 20, several U.S. soldiers were injured in a ballistic missile attack by Iran-backed militias on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Similar to Monday's retaliatory measures, the US immediately launched attacks on militia-affiliated facilities and personnel.
U.S. soldiers patrol an area on the outskirts of Rumaylan in Syria's Kurdish-controlled northeastern Hasakeh province, Dec. 11, 2023. DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images
This also comes as Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen have also carried out numerous attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. Last week, the White House accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in the Red Sea attacks, a claim Tehran denied.
In an interview with CBS News on November 15, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian denied that Iran was responsible for a drone fired from Yemen that was shot down by the guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner. The drone appeared to have the Hudner in its sights, US officials said at the time.
“We really didn't want this crisis to expand,” Amir-Abdollahian told CBS News, referring to the war between Israel and Hamas. “But the US has intensified the war in Gaza by supporting Israel. Yemen makes its own decisions and acts independently.”
Last week, energy giant BP announced it would temporarily suspend all gas and oil deliveries to the Red Sea because of the attacks.
—David Martin, Eleanor Watson, S. Dev, Arden Farhi, Olivia Gazis and Brian Dakss contributed to this report.
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