WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. says it has carried out military strikes in Iraq and Syria targeting a militia blamed for an attack that killed an American contractor.
U.S. forces conducted “precision defensive strikes” against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Iraqi militia, Defense Department official Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.
The U.S. blames the militia for a rocket barrage Friday that killed a U.S. defense contractor at a military compound near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.
Officials said attackers fired as many as 30 rockets in Friday’s assault.
Hoffman said the strikes carried out by the United States will limit the group’s ability to carry out future attacks on Americans and their Iraqi government allies.
The Defense Department gave no details immediately on how the strikes were conducted. They hit three of the militia’s sites in Iraq and two in Syria, including weapon storage facilities and the militia’s command and control bases, Hoffman said.