In retaliation to drone attacks on US personnel in Iraq, the US launched air strikes against Iran-backed militants Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada along the Iraq-Syria border. The groups targeted are members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which were founded in 2014 to combat the Islamic State in Iraq. Later, the soldiers were absorbed into the security forces of the Iraqi government.
Since 2009, the US has labeled Kataib Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization, accusing it of carrying out many assaults against US forces in Iraq. According to US sources, there have been at least five drone assaults targeting facilities utilized by US and coalition forces since April. Rockets have also been fired at them, and improvised explosive devices have been used to target supply convoys.
President Biden signed an executive order authorizing strikes on facilities used in attacks against US forces in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. Two of the targets were just across the border in Syria, while the third was inside Iraq, Pentagon said.
"We took necessary, appropriate, deliberate action that is designed to limit the risk of escalation, but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Rome.
Washington is pressuring Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to limit strikes on US linked targets. Experts argue that in actuality, Iraq's network of paramilitary groups, some of which are backed by Iran, often wield more authority than the prime minister, raising the stakes for any clash with them.
The Iraqi government condemned the strikes, calling them a "blatant and unforgivable infringement of Iraqi sovereignty and national security," Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasool, the military spokesman for Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, warned against escalation and said Iraq did not want to be transformed into a "arena for settling accounts," referring to the conflict in Iraq between the US and Iranian proxies.
The Pentagon is looking for ways to cut command-and-control links between a drone and its operator, improve radar sensors to quickly identify the threat as it approaches, and find effective ways to bring down the aircraft, according to Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top US military commander in the Middle East.
Despite intense pressure to produce a timeline for the US - led force's final withdrawal, Iraqi military officials insist that the force's intelligence and aerial assistance are still critical in keeping pressure on Islamic State remnants in the country.
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