Al-Taji attack in Iraq .. Two American soldiers in serious condition

The US Department of Defense said that two of the American soldiers who were wounded in the latest missile attack in Iraq were in serious condition, while the Iraqi Hezbollah confirmed that the American attacks did not hit any of its elements.

These statements come after the international coalition announced yesterday, Saturday, that three of its forces were wounded in a new attack targeting the Taji base, which includes its forces and Iraqi air defense units, north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

A previous attack had targeted al-Qaeda last Wednesday, killing two American and British soldiers, and as a result of which the American forces responded by bombing sites of the Iraqi Hezbollah in each of Jurf Al-Sakhr, Musayyib, Najaf and Alexandria, killing six Iraqis, including police officers.

Possible response
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman declined to speculate about the possible response, but said in a statement, based on Defense Secretary Mark Esper's warning last week, "You cannot attack and strike US military personnel and get away ... we will hold them accountable."

Hoffman added that the Iraqi security forces made initial arrests, explaining that the United States was helping in the investigation of the attack, which is the second in less than a week on the same military base.

The missile attacks came less than two days after the United States launched retaliatory air strikes on facilities in Iraq, which the Pentagon said were linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah Brigades, which blamed it for Wednesday's attack.

Promote and cooperate
For its part, the Iraqi Hizballah Brigades announced, on Saturday evening, that none of its members was injured in the attacks launched by American fighters, last Friday, and targeting Iraqi army, crowd and police sites in the south of the country.

Although the Hezbollah Brigades did not explicitly claim responsibility for those attacks in its statement, it confirmed the position of the American forces in the targeting circle.

In this context, the Joint Operations Command in the Iraqi army confirmed continued cooperation with the international coalition in providing support to counter the Islamic State, after news was reported that the work had stopped between the operations command and the international coalition.

In a previous statement, the Iraqi Operations Command called on the Iraqi government to expedite the removal of foreign forces from the country, against the backdrop of mutual attacks between the United States and factions close to Iran on Iraqi soil.