Biden orders strike on Iranian-aligned group after 3 US troops injured in drone attack in Iraq

[1LoverofGod]

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military to carry out retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three U.S. servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said one of the U.S. troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone.

Biden, who is spending Christmas at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, was alerted about the attack by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan shortly after it occurred on Monday and ordered the Pentagon and his top national security aides to prepare response options.

Sullivan consulted with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Biden's deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, was with the president at Camp David and convened top aides to review options, according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

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Biden orders strike on Iranian-aligned group after 3 US troops injured in drone attack in Iraq

President Joe Biden has ordered retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three U.S. servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq

abcnews.go.com

 

[Tall Timbers]

Reminds me of how the Viet Nam war was often prosecuted from the White House. Didn't work to well...

 

[1LoverofGod]

Related:

Baghdad condemns U.S strike on Iraqi military positions​

BAGHDAD, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's government condemned on Tuesday overnight U.S. air strikes on Iraqi military positions that it said killed one serviceman and wounded 18 other people, calling them a "clear hostile act".

The United States has carried out retaliatory air strikes on Monday in Iraq after a one-way drone attack earlier in the day by Iran-aligned militants that left one U.S. service member in critical condition and wounded two others.

The government condemned the U.S. strikes as "an unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty," while stressing that attacks by armed groups against military bases hosting U.S-led coalition advisers are hostile acts and violate Iraqi sovereignty, a government statement said.

Two Iraqi security sources said overnight U.S. airstrikes targeted headquarters for Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah in the Iraqi city of Hilla south of Baghdad.

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https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/baghdad-condemns-us-strike-iraqi-military-positions-2023-12-26/

 

[Tall Timbers]

U.S. Forces Strike Iran-Backed Terrorists in Iraq After Christmas Attack Wounds Three Service Members​

After being briefed on the attack, Biden requested options for an American response to the attack and reviewed those options in the afternoon. The White House said Biden then directed strikes on facilities used by the Iran-backed terrorists for their drone operations targeting American troops.

By Sunday evening, the Pentagon reported that CENTCOM forces had conducted "necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq," saying the "precision strikes" were "intended to disrupt and degrade capabilities of the Iran-aligned militia groups directly responsible" for Sunday morning's attack that wounded U.S. service members.

Per CENTCOM, the "early assessments" following the retaliatory strikes indicate that its forces "destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants" and there were "no indications that any civilian lives were affected."

U.S. Forces Strike Iran-Backed Terrorists in Iraq After Christmas Attack Wounds Three Service Members

townhall.com

When it comes to warfighting, "proportionate responses" will lose the war by the time the dust settles. Who's in the White House anyway, President Johnson?