WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said an American AC-130 gunship struck Iran-backed militia vehicles and personnel in western Iraq in retaliation for a ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad air base, which houses US troops.
Iran-backed militia personnel launched at least one “close-range ballistic missile” at the air base west of Baghdad late on Monday, injuring at least eight US personnel and damaging an unoccupied warehouse, defense officials told Al-Monitor.
Pentagon officials billed the AC-130 strikes as defensive action in response to the missile attack, which marked a new escalation as Washington seeks to contain the fallout from Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The self-defense strike resulted in some hostile fatalities,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Tuesday.
