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Trump briefed on 'successful' strikes on Kataib Hezbollah in Syria, Iraq

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ANI US
Last Updated : Dec 30 2019 | 7:30 AM IST

US President Donald Trump was on Sunday briefed about the airstrikes against facilities linked to an Iranian-backed Shia militia group in Syria and Iraq by top American security advisors and said that the operation was a total success.

The officials also discussed "other options" to punish Iran for its alleged attacks on US interests, RT reported.

"We will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy," US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said, standing beside Defence Secretary Mark Esper at a press conference at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.

The strikes against facilities linked to the group, Kataib Hezbollah (KH), are the first retaliatory military actions by Washington in response to those attacks, which have wounded several US soldiers.

Meanwhile, Esper said that the strikes were "successful" and officials briefed "other options" with the President.

The Iran-backed group has been blamed for a series of attacks on a joint US-Iraq military facilities housing American troops.

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Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman termed the strikes as "precision defensive strikes" that "will degrade" KH's ability to carry out future attacks against the coalition forces.

Out of the five targets, three of them were in Iraq and the remaining two in Syria, according to Pentagon. It also said that the targeted locations included weapon storage facilities and command and control locations that the group uses "to plan and execute attacks on OIR (Operation Inherent Resolve) coalition forces".

The KH has been blamed by American officials for their attacks including the one which took place on a base near Kirkuk in Iraq on Friday, where a US civilian contractor died and injured four other US service members.

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First Published: Dec 30 2019 | 7:15 AM IST

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