US strikes hit Iraqi militia blamed in contractor’s death

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has carried out military strikes in Iraq and Syria targeting a militia blamed for a rocket attack that killed an American contractor, a Defense Department spokesman said Sunday.

U.S. forces conducted “precision defensive strikes” against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, an Iran-backed Iraqi militia, spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.

The U.S. blames the militia for a rocket barrage Friday that killed a U.S. defense contractor at a military compound near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. Officials said attackers fired as many as 30 rockets in Friday’s assault.

The Defense Department said the U.S. hit three of the militia’s sites in Iraq and two in Syria, including weapon depots and the militia’s command and control bases.

The strikes were carried out by U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles, said a U.S. official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attacks. At the ammunition storage facilities that were struck, significant secondary explosions were observed.

Hoffman said the U.S. attacks would limit the militia’s ability to carry out future strikes against Americans and their Iraqi allies.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said in a statement that three U.S. airstrikes on Sunday evening Iraq time hit the headquarters of the Hezbollah Brigades at the Iraq-Syria border, killing four fighters.

Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades, a separate force from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, operate under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran.

The Popular Mobilization Forces said Sunday that the U.S. strikes killed at least 19 of Kataeb Hezbollah’s members.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39m0Wrm