The U.S. military carried out an airstrike targeting and killing a commander of one of the Iraqi militias that are responsible for dozens of attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East over the last couple months.
U.S. Central Command forces carried out the strike targeting a Kata’ib Hezbollah leader “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region” on Wednesday night local time, it said in a statement, noting that there were “no indications of collateral damage or civilian casualties at this time.”
CENTCOM did not initially release the name of the target.
There are Iranian-supported militias in Iraq and Syria that have carried out roughly 170 attacks against U.S. forces in both countries and Jordan since mid-October. In that time, three U.S. service members have been killed, while more than 140 service members have been wounded.
The three U.S. troops were killed in an attack targeting Tower 22, a smaller U.S. outpost in northeast Jordan near its borders with Iraq and Syria. More than 40 service members were wounded in this attack.
Going after the Kata’ib Hezbollah leader is presumably a continuation of the U.S.’s response to the killing of its troops. In the first part of its multiphased response, U.S. forces struck more than 85 targets using more than 125 precision munitions last Friday.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Monday that it is “not aware of any Iranians killed” in those strikes, though he noted, “I think it is fair to conclude that there likely were casualties associated with these strikes, but to ensure that we’re providing accurate information, we need to allow time for Central Command to continue to conduct its assessment.”
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U.S. officials warned that the totality of its response could take days or weeks.
The U.S. still has a military presence in Iraq and Syria to ensure the lasting defeat of the Islamic State, though the U.S. and Iraqi governments will begin reevaluating the U.S.’s military presence in the country.
