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| Americans were injured when rockets hit Irbil on 15 February. (Photo by=EPA) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] The US military has carried out an airstrike targeting Iran-backed militias in Syria, the Pentagon says. The attack destroyed "multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups", it said.
BBC said that it’s the first military action ordered by the Biden administration and came in response to attacks against US and coalition personnel in Iraq.The Pentagon named Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada as two of the Iran-backed militias it targeted in Thursday's strike near the Iraqi border in eastern Syria. The US didn’t confirm any casualties, but a UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the US attack had killed at least 17 pro-Iranian fighters.
A civilian contractor was killed in a rocket attack on US targets this month. A US service member and five other contractors were also injured when the rockets hit sites in Irbil, including a base used by the US-led coalition, on 15 February. Rockets have also struck US bases in Baghdad, including the Green Zone, which houses the US embassy and other diplomatic missions. An unnamed US official told Reuters news agency that the attack was meant to send a signal that while the US wanted to punish the militias, it did not want it to escalate into a bigger conflict.
