Washington, March 13 The Pentagon has confirmed that the US forces conducted strikes against a Shia militia group's facilities across Iraq, as a response to a rocket attack on a military base near Baghdad earlier this week that killed two American soldiers and a British service member.
"Earlier this evening, the US conducted defensive precision strikes against Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH) facilities across Iraq," the Department of Defence said in a statement on Thursday night.
The statement noted that the strikes targeted five weapon storage facilities to degrade their ability to conduct future attacks against coalition forces, adding that these weapon storage facilities include the facilities that had housed weapons used to target US and coalition troops, Xinhua news agency reported.
"The US will not tolerate attacks against our people, our interests, or our allies," Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in the statement.
There were 14 others wounded in the rocket attack on Iraq's Camp Taji, north of the capital city of Baghdad, on Wednesday, according to the statement.
The US-led coalition force said that approximately 18 rockets struck the base, adding that Iraqi Security Forces had found a rocket-rigged truck a few miles from the Camp Taji.
The US has claimed that KH was responsible for numerous attacks against American and Coalition Forces in Iraq, including a rocket attack on an Iraqi base near Kirkuk in December 2019 that had killed an American civilian contractor and injured four service members.
The rocket attack on the K1 base led to the US airstrike against senior Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and the subsequent Iranian missile strike retaliation.
Over 5,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq to support local forces in battles against the Islamic State terror group, mainly providing training and advising for them.
( With inputs from IANS )