US strikes Kataib Hizbollah in Iraq

The United States has bombed the headquarters of the Iran-backed Iraqi Hizbollah militant group in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon said Sunday, following a rocket attack in Iraq that killed a US civilian contractor.

“In response to repeated Kataib Hizbollah (KH) attacks on Iraqi bases that host Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) coalition forces, US forces have conducted precision defensive strikes against five KH facilities in Iraq and Syria that will degrade KH’s ability to conduct future attacks against OIR coalition forces,” a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement.

An official from the Tehran-backed Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary told AFP that fifteen fighters, including commanders, were killed and several fighters were also wounded in the strikes. The targets — three in Iraq and two in Syria — included weapons storage facilities and command locations used to plan and execute attacks, the statement added.

On Friday a barrage of 30 rockets was fired at an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk, an oil-rich region north of Baghdad, a US official told AFP. A US civilian contractor died in the attack. A direct hit on an ammunition depot caused secondary explosions, and four more rockets were found in their tubes in a truck at the launch point.

Washington had recently promised “a decisive US response” to a growing number of unclaimed attacks on its interests in Iraq, which it blames on pro-Iran factions. Meanwhile, four rockets exploded on Sunday night near a base housing US troops close to Iraq’s capital, a security official said, shortly after Washington carried out the deadly air strikes against the pro-Iran faction.