The US navy killed a fighter jet of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah brigades in an airstrike in western Iraq on November 21. Hezbollah fighters had earlier attacked US troops at Ain al-Asad Air Base.
“A US AC-130 gunship carried out an airstrike on a automobile close to al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, killing a number of Iran-linked militants,” Fox Information’ Liz Friden reported. “The automobile carried out an assault on al-Assad within the final 24 hours,” a US protection official instructed Friden.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a entrance for Iranian-backed militias, confirmed {that a} “martyr,” often known as Fadil al-Maksusi, was killed “within the battle of fact in opposition to falsehood embodied by the US occupation forces in Iraq.” Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, one of many main Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria, congratulated the Hezbollah brigades on al-Maksusi’s loss of life.
The Hezbollah Brigades is a US-designated international terrorist group and is led by Ahmad al-Hamidawi. The Hezbollah brigades had been based by Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, who was listed by the US authorities as a Specifically Designated World Terrorist in July 2009 and was described as “an advisor to” former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Power commander Qassem Soleimani. Muhandis, together with Qaiz Khazali, performed a key function within the Shia militias’ formation and subsequent assaults on US, coalition and Iraqi forces. The US killed Muhandis and Soleimani in an airstrike in Baghdad in 2020.
Hezbollah brigades obtain coaching, funds, weapons, intelligence and different key help from the Qods Power. The terrorist group is answerable for killing a whole bunch of American troopers in Iraq. Regardless of this, the Hezbollah brigades are a part of the Iraqi In style Mobilization Forces, an official, impartial navy arm of the Iraqi authorities.
Immediately’s assault, which killed Hezbollah fighters, is what the US navy has described as a self-defense strike, or an assault designed to stop an assault on US or allied forces. The U.S. navy has launched a number of self-defense strikes in Somalia because it battles Shabaab.
The US navy has launched three different strikes in opposition to Iranian-backed militias, however they had been in distinction to in the present day’s assault. These three assaults, all of which befell in Syria and hit weapons caches and a secure home, had been designed to discourage the militias from attacking US forces. The militias have launched greater than 60 assaults in opposition to US forces in Iraq and Syria utilizing drones, rockets, mortars, missiles and IEDs. Dozens of US troopers have been injured within the militia assault.
Nearly all of those assaults have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), which was established in 2020 to function a clearinghouse for smaller Iran-backed militias. These smaller militias are themselves offshoots or fronts of extra established, extra outstanding militias such because the Hezbollah Brigades, Asaib Ahl-al Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada. The IRI provides one other layer of believable deniability for Iran, which directs and helps these proxy militias behind the scenes.
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