US drone attack hits pro-Iranian forces in Iraq

The United States admitted this Tuesday the attack with ‘drones’ on a vehicle of pro-Iranian forces in Iraq, which left one dead and three injured, claiming that it was in response to another attack.

“US forces responded in self-defense against those who carried out the attack,” said a US military official who was answering questions about a drone attack early today in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, and that targeted a vehicle belonging to the pro-Iran armed groups Hachd al-Chaabi.

The attack comes in a context of increased regional tensions, with the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The vehicle that was hit was part of a caravan of four cars.

In recent days, armed groups close to Iran have threatened to attack US forces deployed in the Middle East due to Washington’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

Most of the attacks against US soldiers and against the international coalition in Iraq were claimed by a group called Islamic Resistance in Iraq, on the social network Telegram.

Today, this movement announced that one of its fighters was killed in combat in the battle against US forces in Iraq, without reporting the circumstances of this death, nor specifying whether he was killed in Abu Ghraib.

A funeral took place near a mosque in Baghdad, in the presence of several hundred Hachd al-Chaabi fighters.

U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 61 times since mid-October, leaving dozens of U.S. service members with minor injuries, according to U.S. military officials.

In retaliation for the attacks, Washington bombed sites in Syria linked to Iran.

The United States also adopted sanctions against seven people affiliated with two pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups.

Washington has around 900 soldiers in Syria and almost 2,500 in Iraq fighting the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS).