Iran–Iraq relations

U.S. forces targeted sites used by Iran-backed militants in Iraq early Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced, carrying out strikes that Iraqi sources said left two people dead.

The strikes came just days after U.S. troops in western Iraq were targeted with ballistic missiles and rockets in an attack the Pentagon blamed on militants supported by Tehran.

The US Central Command confirmed that American military forces carried out airstrikes targeting multiple facilities utilized by Kataib Hezbollah and its affiliated groups in Iraq. This action follows a series of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. military carried out strikes on three sites used by Iran-backed forces in Iraq on Monday after an attack wounded three American personnel earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Reuters reports that since the conflict began on October 7, Hezbollah and some Iraqi factions have attacked Israeli and US forces almost daily, however, there have been no reports of attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria since a four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect.

In the latest escalation of tensions, the United States conducted another series of strikes against targets associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in eastern Syria. According to U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, these strikes, authorized by President Joe Biden, targeted a training facility and a safe house near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin.

Iran's foreign ministry on Jan. 29 condemned a rocket attack against Baghdad airport that took place the previous day as an act that seeks to "destabilize" Iraq.

The latest attack came after several attempted assaults on the U.S. facilities in Iraq.
The American defense system C-RAM was active during the night, the Iraqi army stated, and added that the rockets did not hit the embassy, but fell near it in the so-called green zone of Baghdad, where the embassies are located.
There were no casualties in the attack.

U.S. troops came under rocket fire in Syria on June 28, but escaped injury, in apparent retaliation for weekend U.S. air strikes against Iran-aligned militia in Syria and Iraq.

A U.S. military spokesman said U.S. forces had responded to the multiple rockets by firing back at the positions in self-defense.

The air strike is a response to the missile attack on US targets in Iraq and was of limited dimensions, it is possible that there would be no escalation, Reuters reports. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that 17 pro-Iranian fighters were killed in those attacks.

A volley of rockets targeting an airbase in Iraq's Kurdistan region killed a foreign civilian contractor and wounded five others, the U.S.-led coalition said.

The attack late on Feb. 15 was the first time in nearly two months that Western military or diplomatic installations have been targeted in Iraq, after a string of similar incidents.