WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States waged a series of precision air strikes on Thursday versus an Iran-backed militia in Iraq that it blamed for a significant rocket attack a day previously that killed two American soldiers and a 26- year-old British soldier.
FILE IMAGE: U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, speaks throughout a joint press conference with Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg,( unseen) in Kabul, Afghanistan February 29,2020 REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail/File Image
The U.S. strikes appeared restricted in scope and directly customized, targeting five weapons storage facilities utilized by Kataib Hezbollah militants – including facilities used to store weaponry for past attacks on U.S.-led union troops, the Pentagon said.
Iraq’s military stated in a statement that the U.S. air strikes hit four locations in Iraq.
The U.S. military did not approximate the number of people in Iraq may have been eliminated in the strikes, which authorities said were carried out by piloted aircraft.
But there no was no indication of the type of high-profile killings that President Donald Trump authorized in January, when the United States targeted a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in a Pentagon declaration detailing the strikes, cautioned that the United States was prepared to respo