(Photo Credit: U.S. Army)
The United States military has launched a series of strikes after multiple short-range ballistic missiles were launched against American forces at Ayn al-Asad Airbase in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar on November 21.
An AC-130 gunship had responded immediately to the attack, firing on individuals responsible for the missile attack. The next day, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the U.S. had also launched precision airstrikes on two facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah armed faction.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said on November 21 that the attack by Iranian-backed militants resulted in “several non-serious injuries and some minor damage to infrastructure.” It marked, according to Singh, the first time that a ballistic missile was used since attacks on U.S. forces began on October 17.
The CENTCOM said later on November 22 that the airstrikes were “in direct response to the attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups, including the one in Iraq on November 21, which involved use of close-range ballistic missiles.”
A defense official told CNN that the facilities, an operations center and command and control node near al-Anbar and Jurf al Saqr to the south of Baghdad, were used by Kataib Hezbollah to “support recent attacks on U.S. and coalition bases in Iraq and Syria.”
“Initial evaluation of the strikes indicate that U.S. forces successfully destroyed the intended facilities. Additionally, we can confirm the presence of Kataib Hezbollah personnel,” the official said. “We’re unable to provide a casualty assessment at this time.”
Iraq media reported the death of a fighter in the AC-130 attack and at least eight others in later strikes on Kataib Hezbollah facilities.
The so-called Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) claimed responsibility for the attack and said that it was carried out in response to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. It also released videos showing the launch of what appear to be an Ababil-2 suicide drone on November 20 and two Fath 360 on November 21 at Ayn al-Assad. Both weapons are Iranian-made. In addition, Kataib Hezbollah is thought to be one of the IRI main factions.
Another video that surfaced online on November 22 showed a large fire at the air base. The footage was allegedly taken after the missile attack.
The IRI formed a special operations room to support Palestinian armed factions in Gaza and began launching attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria following the October 17 Al-Ahli Arab Hospital massacre.
The U.S. unconditional support to Israel and its recent strikes on Iraq will likely lead to a dangerous escalation. There are already reports of more attacks on Ayn al-Assad and on two other U.S. bases, al-Hariri in the northern Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan and al-Shaddadi in the northeastern Syrian province of al-Hasakah.
if things continue to escalate, netanyahu will have achieved his ultimate goal, that is to have his treasonous, israel-first, aipac enslaved puppets in the us government, & in the us military fight iran to the last us soldier. a war with iran will be worse than the wars in vietnam, iraq, & afghanistan put together. the us will have to reinstate the draft yet will lose just like the previous wars & the us deficit will at least double. russia & china will be the biggest winners
we can expect major cheer leading for war by the mainstream media. voices for peace will be regarded as treasonous. young men, get ready to die for the empire.
ordinary amerikan cowardice
any country the us can use slow fat gunships and not get immediately shot down is a country that has no airforce, no air defense and most likely men running around in sandals. can someone give them at least manpads ffs!? maybe the houthi ad from iran that is the least effective, but still can down drones and big fat gunships!?
the mighty us military on safari again. the only battles they can succeed in.
if there were ever any doubt that trump was an israeli agent, that should be gone by now. his belligerent and hateful diatribes should scare everyone. his claim that he was the best president israel ever had is accurate though. i dread to think what he would have done to palestine by now. as bad as biden is, trump would slaughter all of them and laugh about it. his blather should scare even israelis.
trump partially owns this war as it is. his followers don’t have a clue that it was zionist israeli (adelson) money that put him in office. they still think he’s rich. he ain’t, he asked to pay a $400,000 fine in installments. his crap is all on paper and it’s all fraudulent. soleimani is smiling at his problems.
solemani sleeps with the fishes where he belongs.
general soleimani was 1000x a better man and leader then trump, could ever be. i’m sure you know the saying a man only dies once and a coward(trump) dies a 1000x before his death.
fire more missiles but much bigger ones.