Breaking: US strikes Iraq, Syria after contractor killed

The U.S. military flew combat sorties in Iraq and Syria on Sunday just days after a U.S. defense contractor was killed in a rocket attack on a military compound. The "precision defensive strikes" successfully targeted five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, according to a report to Fox News by Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.

Two defense officials added that Air Force F-15 jet fighters carried out the strikes.

In addition to the defense contractor, four U.S. troops and two members of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) were wounded.

According to military reports, over 30 rockets were fired in Friday's assault, making this the eleventh rocket attack on U.S. and Iraqi forces since the end of October.

Hoffman said the U.S. strikes will weaken Kataeb Hezbollah's ability to carry out future attacks on Americans and their Iraqi government allies.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had blamed Iran for two separate rocket attacks on Baghdad International Airport on Dec. 9 and Dec. 11. [BIA is one of the airports that CNN probably does not pay $100 thousand for airing their TV coverage.] U.S. and Iraqi forces are located on the far side of this airport.

Pompeo said if any Americans were harmed in the future, it would "be answered with a decisive U.S. response."

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