U.S. military strikes Iran-backed Iraqi militias after attack that wounded American troops

U.S. forces on Tuesday struck three sites in Iraq used by Iran-allied Shiite militias, Pentagon officials said, in a move that comes just days after a militia attack on an American air base in Iraq left several U.S. personnel wounded.

It’s the latest in a series of strikes by the U.S. against the group Kataib Hezbollah, a militia that the U.S. says has direct ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The militia is believed to be responsible for a weekend attack on Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq. U.S. Central Command said that U.S. personnel were being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries after that incident.

In a statement Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said President Biden ordered retaliatory strikes against Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-linked groups that have targeted American troops stationed in Iraq and neighboring Syria. The U.S. forces there are charged with battling remnants of the Islamic State terror groups still operating in the region.

“We do not seek to escalate conflict in the region,” Mr. Austin. “We are fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people and our facilities. We call on these groups and their Iranian sponsors to immediately cease these attacks.”

CENTCOM said the strikes targeted Kataib Hezbollah’s “headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack [drone] capabilities.”

Kataib Hezbollah and other paramilitary groups in Iraq have launched repeated attacks against U.S. troops over a period of years. Mr. Biden has ordered several retaliatory strikes against those groups, but the attacks have continued, sparking controversy in Baghdad over the U.S. troop presence in the country.

The clashes with Kataib Hezbollah are just one part of the broader proxy war between the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East that has escalated with the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza. U.S. forces over the past two weeks have also carried out numerous airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The Houthis, who are also financially and logistically supported by Iran, have launched more than 30 attacks on international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden over the past several months.

The Houthi attacks, and the militia assaults on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, have grown more frequent since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas.