American strikes in Iraq killed at least five fighters from a pro-Iran group early Wednesday, according to Iraqi security sources, a new escalation in a context of increased regional tensions since the start of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in Gaza. . Earlier, the US military’s Middle East Command, Centcom, announced that it had carried out “precision strikes” on two sites in Iraq, in retaliation for recent attacks by pro-Iran groups against US troops and coalition forces. international anti-jihadist movement, in Iraq and Syria.
Strikes described as “self-defense”
Already on Tuesday, a bombing in the Abu Ghraib region near Baghdad targeted a vehicle of the Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of ex-paramilitaries integrated into the regular forces, leaving one dead and injured, with Washington claiming responsibility for an air strike. ‘self-defense’. This series of American strikes are the first in Iraq since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas which has increased tensions in the region.
“Five members of the Hezbollah Brigades were killed by an aerial bombardment in the Jurf al-Sakhr sector,” an official within the Iraqi security services told AFP on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. A Hachd al-Chaabi official reported “five deaths and four wounded” among the fighters of this influential group. Providing a report of seven wounded, a third official from the Interior Ministry confirmed “a strike against sites of the Hezbollah Brigades, in Jurf al-Sakhr”, about sixty kilometers south of Baghdad.
In retaliation for attacks against American forces, Washington has already bombed sites linked to Iran three times in Syria. The United States also adopted sanctions against seven people affiliated with two pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups, including the Hezbollah Brigades.
An increasing number of attacks
Tuesday’s American strike in the Abu Ghraib region was carried out in response to the attack the day before by a “short-range ballistic missile” on the Iraqi base of Ain al-Assad, where the west of the country of American troops and the international anti-jihadist coalition, according to Pentagon spokesperson General Pat Ryder. The attack on Ain al-Assad left eight people injured and some minor damage to the base, according to the spokesperson.
The number of attacks targeting American forces and the international anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq and Syria has jumped since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. American and coalition forces have been targeted 66 times by rocket fire or drone strikes since October 17, ten days after the start of the war, according to the Pentagon. The attacks left around sixty American troops injured, according to the same source.
Funeral in Baghdad
In recent weeks, most of these attacks have been claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, a nebula close to the pro-Iran armed groups who welcome its action on their Telegram application channels. The movement announced Tuesday that one of its fighters had been killed in combat in “the battle” against American forces in Iraq, an allusion to the bombing of Abu Ghraib.
A funeral was held Tuesday near a mosque in Baghdad for this fighter, Fadel al-Maksoussi, in the presence of several hundred members of Hachd al-Chaabi, according to an AFP journalist. His coffin was covered with a flag in the colors of the Hezbollah Brigades. This group had recently assured that the attacks of the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” were part of a “strategy of attrition”. Washington has around 900 soldiers in Syria and nearly 2,500 in Iraq fighting the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS).