US military Thursday, launched air strikes against five bases of Kataib Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian shiite terror group operating in Iraq.
The terror group was responsible for the rocket attack on Taji military camp north of Baghdad, that killed three coalition troops - two Americans and one British. Eighteen rockets had struck the base Wednesday, according to coalition forces spokesperson. At least 12 other people were injured in the attack.
Earlier Thursday, US Central Command Chief Gen Kenneth McKenzie told a Senate committee, "the Iranian proxy group Kataib Hezbollah is the only group known to have previously conducted an indirect fire attack of this scale against US and coalition forces in Iraq,"
In the retaliatory strikes, US forces targeted the terror group's weapons storage facilities across Iraq.
Central Command (@CENTCOM) commander Gen Frank McKenzie confirmed the strikes in a series of tweets, "we have effectively destroyed these facilities and expect that they no longer contain the type of advanced Iranian-supplied weapons that were used in the KH attacks.
"These defensive strikes were designed to destroy Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons, and that the U.S. acted in self-defense in response to a direct and deliberate attack on an Iraqi base that hosts coalition service members."
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the rocket attack on the coalition Camp as 'deplorable.'
The Ministry of Defence identified the British soldier killed as Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon, a Combat Medical Technician who served as a Reserve with the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry.
The Pentagon identified the two Americans killed as Army Spc. Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias, 27, of Hanford, California and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts, 28, of Owasso, Oklahoma.
