US AC-130 Strikes Iranian-Backed Militia In Iraq After Ballistic Missile Attack
The United States’ Department of Defense confirmed on Tuesday that an Air Force AC-130 gunship had conducted an airstrike on Iranian-backed militiamen in Iraq, after they launched a short-range ballistic missile at an airbase there hosting American forces as part of the coalition against the Islamic State.
During a press conference at the Pentagon, Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that the immediate lethal self defense strike was conducted after the militants launched a “close range ballistic missile” at al Asad air base, causing “several” enemy casualties. According to Singh, the ballistic missile attack injured eight coalition soldiers, including American troops.
Iraq’s Islamic Resistance, an umbrella group for the various Iranian-backed Shia militias in the country, had earlier identified a single fighter, one Fadhel Attiyah al-Magsoosi, as having been killed in battle earlier that day.
The AC-130 strike is the first airstrike the US has reported conducting in Iraq in two years, with previous self defense strikes taking place against Iranian-backed militias in Syria. Similarly, the strike is only the second one the Pentagon has said to have resulted in hostile casualties since the start of the militias’ campaign of rocket and drone attacks against American and coalition bases in the region. The 12 November airstrikes on a training facility and a safehouse used by militias and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were the first to do so, although the Department of Defense did not provide estimates on militia casualty numbers from that strike.
As of 21 November, the Pentagon has officially disclosed 66 attacks on U.S. and Coalition bases in Iraq and Syria since October 16 by Iranian-backed militias. Until now, the attacks have been carried out using rockets and Iranian-made suicide drones. 62 American troops have been injured by these attacks, with some experiencing traumatic brain injuries, but the Department of Defense says that all injured have since returned to duty.