An American servicemember was seriously wounded in a drone attack carried out by an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq. The event took place during a flurry of activity on Christmas Day this year, including the reported killing of an Iranian official by Israel.
The Department of Defense announced this week that three American servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq. One of the injured was seriously wounded. The American military personnel is stationed at a base in Erbil, in the autonomous Kurdish region.
The attacks were allegedly carried out by Kataib Hezbollah.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that it struck multiple sites of the same militia group.
The group has worked together with the Islamic Republic for years and its members were present with Iranian General Qassem Soleimani when he was killed in an airstrike ordered by former President Donald Trump.
The Pentagon said that the airstrikes “destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed” some of the militia members. Central Command added that there were “no indications that any civilian lives were affected.”
The military said that the strikes “are intended to hold accountable those elements directly responsible for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria and degrade their ability to continue attacks.”
U.S. CENTCOM conducts strikes against Kataib Hezbollah terrorist group targets in Iraq
In response to multiple attacks against coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, U.S. military forces conducted airstrikes against multiple facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups… pic.twitter.com/mmL4WqFXq9
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 26, 2023
There have been more than 100 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East since the start of the Oct. 7 war between Hezbollah and Israel. While other attacks resulted in injuries to American servicemembers, this is the first one that caused a serious injury.
Separately, Israel reportedly killed a leader in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which is deemed a terrorist organization by the United States.
Iran confirmed that Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi was killed in an airstrike in Damascus, Syria. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that Israel would “certainly pay for this crime.”
The country’s president added that the Israeli airstrike was “another sign of frustration, helplessness and incapacity of the usurping Zionist regime in the region.”
