Biden Orders Strike on Iranian-Aligned Group After 3 US Troops Injured in Drone Attack in Iraq 

President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
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Biden Orders Strike on Iranian-Aligned Group After 3 US Troops Injured in Drone Attack in Iraq 

President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)

President Joe Biden ordered the US military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three US servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said one of the US troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone

Biden, who is spending Christmas at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, was alerted about the attack by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan shortly after it occurred on Monday and ordered the Pentagon and his top national security aides to prepare response options to the attack on an air base used by American troops in Erbil.

Sullivan consulted with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Biden's deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, was with the president at Camp David and convened top aides to review options, according to a US official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

Within hours, Biden convened his national security team for a call in which Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed Biden on the response options. Biden opted to target three locations used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, the official said.

The US strikes were carried out at about 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday in Iraq, less than 13 hours after the US personnel were attacked. According to US Central Command, the retaliatory strikes on the three sites, "destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants.”

"The President places no higher priority than the protection of American personnel serving in harm’s way," Watson said. “The United States will act at a time and in a manner of our choosing should these attacks continue.”

The latest attack on US troops follows months of escalating threats and actions against American forces in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

The dangerous back-and-forth strikes have escalated since Iranian-backed militant groups under the umbrella group called the “Islamic Resistance” in Iraq and Syria began striking US facilities Oct. 17, the date that a blast at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds. Iranian-backed militias have carried out dozens of attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than two months ago.

Last month, US fighter jets struck a Kataib Hezbollah operations center and command and control node, following a short-range ballistic missile attack on US forces at Al-Assad Air Base in western Iraq. Iranian-backed militias also carried out a drone attack at the same air base in October, causing minor injuries.

The US has also blamed Iran, which has funded and trained Hamas, for attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militias against commercial and military vessels through a critical shipping choke point in the Red Sea.

The Biden administration has sought to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a wider regional conflict that either opens up new fronts of Israeli fighting or that draws the US in directly. The administration’s measured response — where not every attempt on American troops has been met with a counterattack — has drawn criticism from Republicans.

The US has thousands of troops in Iraq training Iraqi forces and combating remnants of the ISIS group, and hundreds in Syria, mostly on the counter-ISIS mission. They have come under dozens of attacks, though as yet none fatal, since the war began on Oct. 7, with the US attributing responsibility to Iran-backed groups.

"While we do not seek to escalate conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities," Austin said in a statement.



Palestinian Officials Say Israeli Settlers Torched Cars in Ramallah

Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
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Palestinian Officials Say Israeli Settlers Torched Cars in Ramallah

Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)

Palestinian officials said Israeli settlers were behind an attack in which several cars were torched overnight just a few kilometers (miles) away from the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

No one was wounded in the attack overnight into Monday in Al-Bireh, a city adjacent to Ramallah, where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered. An Associated Press reporter counted 18 burned-out cars.

Settler attacks on Palestinians and their property have surged since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel.

But attacks in and around Ramallah, home to senior Palestinian officials and international missions, are rare.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers population centers in the territory, condemned the attack. Israeli police, who handle law enforcement matters involving settlers in the West Bank, said they were investigating.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. The territory’s 3 million Palestinians live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy over less than half of the territory.

Over 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship live in scores of settlements across the West Bank, which most of the international community considers illegal.