Biden Orders Strike On Iranian-Aligned Group After 3 US Troops Injured In Iraq

President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military to carry out retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three U.S. service members 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. 

Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, claimed credit for the attack. Biden was alerted about the attack by national security adviser Jake Sullivan shortly after it occurred on Monday. He then ordered the Pentagon and his top national security aides to prepare response options to the attack on Erbil Air Base.

Sullivan consulted with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Biden then convened his national security team for a call in which Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed Biden on the response options. Biden opted to target three locations used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups.

The U.S. strikes were carried out at about 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday in Iraq. The strikes came less than 13 hours after the U.S. personnel were attacked. According to U.S. Central Command, the retaliatory strikes on the three sites, “destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants.”

The latest attack on U.S. troops follows months of escalating threats and actions against American forces in the region. These threats have increased since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the devastating war in Gaza. The Biden administration has sought to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a wider regional conflict.

Things have escalated since Iranian-backed militant groups under the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Syria began striking U.S. facilities Oct. 17. The U.S. has thousands of troops in Iraq training Iraqi forces and combating remnants of the Islamic State group.

“While we do not seek to escalate conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities,” Defense Secretary Austin said in a statement.