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Tuesday\u2019s strikes hit \u201cmultiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq,\u201d according to the command, which did not identify which Iranian-backed groups had been targeted.<\/p>\n
During U.S. military operations against Iran earlier this year, dubbed \u201cEpic Fury,\u201d the conflict spread to Iraq.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom February through April 2026, there were more than 600 attempted attacks on U.S. citizens and facilities by Iran-aligned terrorist militias in Iraq,\u201d CENTCOM announced on Tuesday.<\/a><\/p>\n In March, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters were attacking Iranian proxy groups in Iraq<\/a> \u201cto make sure that we suppress any threat in Iraq against U.S. forces or U.S. interests.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s airstrikes come as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Iraq in September, leaders from both countries affirmed earlier this month.<\/a><\/p>\n The U.S. military has been battling Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq for more than two decades. Following the invasion to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Iran provided weapons to Shiite militias and other groups that killed more than 600 service members between 2003 and 2011<\/a>, according to the Defense Department.<\/p>\n U.S. troops often clashed with Iranian-backed groups in Iraq during operations against the Islamic State group, or ISIS, which began in 2014. A 2020 U.S. airstrike in Baghdad\u00a0 killed both Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani<\/a>, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Kata\u2019ib Hezbollah<\/a>, a major Iranian proxy in Iraq.<\/p>\n After Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel, an umbrella organization of Iranian-backed groups began striking U.S. troops in the Middle East. The network, which called itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, took credit for a January 2024 drone attack against a U.S. outpost in Jordan<\/a> that killed three soldiers.<\/p>\n The commander of the U.S.-led military campaign against ISIS told Task & Purpose in 2024 that Iran exerted \u201ca great degree of control\u201d<\/a> over the militias that were attacking U.S. troops.<\/p>\n One factor that has complicated U.S. efforts to counter those militias is that several of those groups are also part of the Popular Mobilization Forces<\/a>, a group of Shiite militias that are nominally under Iraqi control, but many have direct ties to Iran\u2019s Quds Force. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has pressured the Iraqi government to disarm these paramilitary groups.<\/a><\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s strikes by U.S. and Saudi forces in Iraq is the latest flareup since the collapse of a ceasefire<\/a> between the United States and Iran earlier this month. A total of four U.S. troops have been killed since then including a soldier who died during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone<\/a> in Erbil, Iraq.<\/p>\n Trump recently decided to hold off on a major escalation of attacks against Iran in part because the U.S. military\u2019s supply of air defense missiles is running low, according to the New York Times.<\/a> A recent analysis by the Center for International Studies<\/a> think tank in Washington, D.C. estimates just how diminished the stockpile of Patriot THAAD interceptors is.<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Task & Purpose Video<\/p>\n Each week on Tuesdays and Fridays our team will bring you analysis of military tech, tactics, and doctrine.<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/p>\n Jeff Schogol is the senior Pentagon reporter for Task & Purpose. He has covered the military for nearly 20 years. Email him at schogol@taskandpurpose.com or direct message @JSchogol73030 on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get Task & Purpose in your inbox Sign up for Task & Purpose Today to get the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[9911,94],"class_list":["post-228050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-adsafety","tag-iraq"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117004359101276193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Apache\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Apache-Iraq-2.jpg\")
An AH-64 Apache helicopter conducts ground runs prior to a Maintenance test flight on April 20, 2025 at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brad C. Stepien.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785344708_191_250319-N-ML799-1660K.jpeg\")
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