After 103 attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria, Joe Biden finally authorizes a bigger strike against Iranian-backed proxy forces in Iraq, hitting three different sites run by Kataeb Hezbollah.
One is reportedly dead and 24 injured from the strikes.
Here’s more from Times of Israel:
The US 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.
The strikes killed one person and wounded 24, security forces later said.
Washington has repeatedly targeted sites used by Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq and Syria in response to dozens of attacks on American and allied forces in the region since the October 7 outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
“US military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataeb Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq,” Austin said in a statement.
“These precision strikes are a response to a series of attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias, including an attack by Iran-affiliated Kataeb Hezbollah and affiliated groups on Arbil Air Base earlier today,” he said.
That attack wounded three US military personnel, one critically, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the attack — which was carried out with a one-way attack drone — and directed the strikes in a call with Austin and other national security officials after ordering the Defense Department to prepare a response, the statement said.
The drone attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose formation of Iran-backed armed groups, which opposes US support for Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A tally by US military officials has counted 103 attacks against its troops in Iraq and Syria since October 17. Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
Notice how Austin said that the US conducted “proportionate strikes” in his statement? That’s the problem with Joe Biden. He’s so afraid of provoking Iran that he won’t do what is absolutely necessary to defend our troops. Our strikes on these Iranian-backed proxies attacking us should NOT be proportionate, they should be overwhelming. And they should have been overwhelming a long time ago, not after 103 attacks.