One dead, 18 wounded in strikes on pro-Iran sites in Iraq

Iraq on Tuesday denounced U.S. air strikes in the country as a "hostile act" after the Pentagon said it had targeted three sites used by pro-Iran forces after coming under fire.

The government said the strikes that killed one member of the security forces and wounded 18 other people, including civilians, were an "unacceptable attack on Iraqi sovereignty" that damaged bilateral relations.

An Iraqi interior ministry official said the strikes targeted a Hashed al-Shaabi site in the central city of Hilla, one of two locations targeted in Babylon province. Another strike hit the southern province of Wassit, the official said.

Hours earlier the United States said its forces had carried out strikes on three sites used by pro-Iran groups in Iraq in response to a series of attacks on U.S. personnel.

U.S. forces have repeatedly targeted sites used by Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq and Syria in response to dozens of attacks on American and allied forces in the region since the October 7 outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

"U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataeb Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, forms part of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a coalition of former paramilitary forces that are now integrated into Iraq's regular armed forces.

"These precision strikes are a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias, including an attack by Iran-affiliated Kataeb Hezbollah and affiliated groups on Erbil Air Base" on Monday, Austin said.

That attack wounded three U.S. military personnel, one critically, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said.

U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the attack -- which was carried out with a one-way attack drone -- and directed the U.S. strikes in a call with Austin and other national security officials after ordering the defense department to prepare a response, the statement said.

Biden "places no higher priority than the protection of American personnel serving in harm's way. The United States will act at a time and in a manner of our choosing should these attacks continue," the statement added.

The drone attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose formation of armed groups affiliated with the Hashed al-Shaabi.

A tally by U.S. military officials has counted 103 attacks against its troops in Iraq and Syria since October 17, most of which have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which opposes US support for Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.