Iraq Base Attack: Strikes 'Kill 25' Iran-Backed Fighters After Troops Killed
Iraq Base Attack: Strikes 'Kill 25' Iran-Backed Fighters After Troops Killed – BBC News
Air strikes in eastern Syria have killed 26 Iraqis from an Iran-backed Shia paramilitary force after a deadly attack on US-led coalition forces in Iraq, a monitoring group has said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Popular Mobilisation bases near the border town of Albu Kamal were hit.
It was not clear who carried out the strikes. The coalition did not comment.
But it followed a rocket attack on Camp Taji military base in Iraq that killed one British and two American soldiers.
No group has said it fired the rockets, but a top US commander said they were likely to have been fired by Shia militias in the Popular Mobilisation.
"While we are still investigating the attack, I will note that the Iranian proxy group Kataib Hezbollah is the only group known to have previously conducted an indirect fire attack of this scale against US and coalition forces in Iraq," Central Command chief Gen Kenneth McKenzie told a Senate committee…
Iranian Proxy ‘Likely’ Launched Strike That Killed 2 American Troops In Iraq, Says U.S. General
Iranian Proxy ‘Likely’ Launched Strike That Killed 2 American Troops In Iraq, Says U.S. General by Joe Gould – Defense News
A rocket attack in Iraq that killed two American troops and one U.K. service member was “most likely” conducted by a Shia militia group, but the U.S. Defense Department is still investigating, according to the top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.
In congressional testimony Thursday, Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie said “the Iranian proxy group known as Kataib Hezbollah is the only group known to have conducted an indirect fire attack on this scale against the U.S. coalition forces in Iraq.”
A day after the attack, in which a dozen people were injured in a volley of 18 rockets that hit Iraq’s Camp Taji base, McKenzie said America’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran ― including the presence of more than 10,000 U.S. troops in the Mideast and stiff economic sanctions ― has “reestablished a rough form of deterrence” without attributable state-on-state violence…