On Wednesday, two U.S. soldiers were killed when 18 missiles were fired at Camp Taji, just north of Baghdad.
The United States, on Thursday, carried out a retaliatory strike, bombing five Shia militia targets.
Sweet Revenge
The bombings were categorized as “defensive and proportional” by military leaders.
The U.S. Department of Defense, in part, stated, “Earlier this evening, the United States conducted defensive precision strikes against Kata’ib Hizbollah (KH) facilities across Iraq.
“These strikes targeted five weapon storage facilities to significantly degrade their ability to conduct future attacks against Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) coalition forces.”
#US Department of Defense press release on today’s retaliatory attack on Kata’ib Hezbollah, part of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi #PMF, which in turn is part of #Iraq’s official armed forces, an important piece of information the Pentagon and mass media leaves out. pic.twitter.com/3E6b2kT6X2
— lobo (@thewolfreports) March 12, 2020
Kata’eb Hezbollah is a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that is regularly believed to have carried out attacks against U.S. forces in the region.
According to reports, the PMF suffered heavy casualties in the assault.
While unconfirmed at this point, General Siamand Mashhadani of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is believed to have been among those wounded or killed.
Photos have started to surface of the attacks…
🔴#عــــاجل ::
بالصور مطار كربلاء الدولي
بعد القصف الأمريكي pic.twitter.com/OkePgX0O46— Firas W. Alsarray – فراس السراي (@firasalsarrai) March 12, 2020
Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense, stated that President Trump has given him the authority “to do what we need to do.”
As stated above, the strike was in retaliation for the strike on Wednesday that killed two as yet unidentified U.S. soldiers as well as a British Army nurse.
While this attack had been initially reported as a possible violation of the peace treaty with the Taliban by some outlets, the forces now credited with the initial attack have no affiliation with the Taliban, so the peace treaty is still in place.