US strikes target 5 facilities linked to Iran-backed Shia militia in Iraq, Syria

US forces conducted strikes in Iraq and Syria against five facilities linked to an Iran-backed Shia militia group, which has been blamed for a series of attacks on a joint US-Iraq military facilities housing American troops, Pentagon said on Sunday.

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, CNN reported.

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.

Hoffman said that the group has connections to Iran forces.

"KH has a strong linkage with Iran's Quds Force and has repeatedly received lethal aid and other support from Iran that it has used to attack OIR coalition forces," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )