Reuters quoted 3 Iraqi security sources as saying that an American air strike near the city Kirkuk The attack led to the killing of 5 members of an armed faction supported by Iran, while a US military official confirmed the strike, indicating that it was “for self-defense.”
Iraqi security sources said that the air strike targeted members of the armed faction while they were preparing to launch explosive projectiles at American forces in Iraq.
For his part, the American official said that the strike was carried out “in self-defense against an imminent threat,” and that it targeted a site used to launch drones near the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Sunday afternoon.
For its part, a statement issued by the “Islamic Resistance” in Iraq – an umbrella that represents several Iraqi armed factions – said that 5 of its members were killed and pledged revenge against the American forces.
The group claimed responsibility for attacks against American forces yesterday, Sunday, including targeting the American base in the “Green Village” in eastern Syria.
Sources also told Al Jazeera that a missile attack targeted the Ain al-Asad base, which houses American forces in western Iraq.
Earlier on Sunday, an American military official said that American and international forces were attacked with several missiles in the Rmeilan landing zone in northeastern Syria, but they did not leave any dead or wounded or caused damage to the infrastructure.
Continuous attacks
Iraqi armed groups claimed responsibility for more than 70 similar attacks on American forces since October 17, against the backdrop of Washington’s support for Israel in its war on… Gaza.
These attacks, which were carried out via drones or missiles, resulted in the injury of 60 people among the American forces, according to the US Department of Defense (Pentagon).
The attacks stopped during a week-long truce between the Islamic Resistance Movement (agitation) and Israel, but it resumed after the end of that truce in early December.
Late last November, American strikes twice targeted fighters in pro-Iranian factions in Iraq, in response to these continuing attacks, and Washington bombed sites in Syria three times.
900 American soldiers are stationed in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq on a mission that the United States says aims to advise and assist local forces in trying to prevent ISIS from re-emerging after it seized vast areas in Syria and Iraq in 2014 before being defeated.
