US hits out at Iran with strikes wiping out at least 19 in Iraq and Syria after rocket attack killed American civilian

THE US has hit out at Iran with deadly strikes on key sites in Iraq and Syria controlled by an Iranian-backed militia group.

The strikes, which reportedly left at least 19 dead on Sunday, were carried out in retaliation to Friday's rocket attack in Iraq - which killed a US civilian.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strikes send a message that the US will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardize American lives.

Addressing Friday's attack's first, Pompeo, speaking at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Sunday, said: "This wasn't the first set of attacks against this particular Iraqi facility and others where there were American lives at risk.

"And today what we did is take a decisive response that makes clear what President Trump has said for months and months and months, which is that we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy.

"We will always honor that commitment to take decisive actions when that takes place.

"We continue to demand the Islamic Republic of Iran act in a way that is consistent with what I laid out back in May 2018, for what it is that we expect Iran to do so that it can rejoin the community of nations."

ADDITIONAL ACTION

US officials warned of "additional action" in order to "deter further bad behavior from militia groups or from Iran."

The "precision defensive strikes" were conducted against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, the Defense Department said in a statement.

According to reports, three locations in Iraq and two in Syria were struck - including weapons storage facilities and command posts.

Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades – a separate force from the Lebanese group Hezbollah – operate under the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

DEADLY RETALIATION

Many of the PMU are supported by Iraq, and on Sunday the PMU said in a statement that the US strikes had killed at least 19 Kataeb Hezbollah members.

US officials said the strikes were in response to Friday's barrage, which saw as many as 30 rockets fired in Kirkuk, northern Iraq.

The US blames the Iranian-backed militia for the attacks, which killed a US civilian contractor and injured four other service members.

In an announcement Sunday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles carried out the strikes and all the aircraft safely returned to their home base.

Esper added that he, Pompeo and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had discussed with President Trump additional options that are available in response to Iran.

Since the United States military returned to Iraq in 2014, Iranian-backed forces and American forces have refrained from attacking each other.

This restraint was due to both countries sharing a common enemy in the Islamic State.

GROWING TENSIONS

But with ISIS having lost its territory, tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington.

In May 2019 Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement which he called a "horrible, one-sided deal", saying it did not address Iran's ballistic missile activities and check in its regional behaviour.

The US also threatened to impose the "strongest sanctions in history" against Iran.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out 12 demands for Iran and said relief from economic sanctions would only come when Washington had seen tangible shifts in Iran's policies.

The United States has a long history of sanctions against Iran.

They have been implemented in response to actions by the Iranian Government dating back to the late seventies.

Iran has been accused of supporting terrorism and extremism and pursuing nuclear weapons.

The US says the country supports Governments of countries considered enemies to America, like Syria.

It also argues that Iran supports groups who are enemies of its allies, including Hamas.

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