The US military has carried out “defensive strikes” in Iraq and Syria against the Kataib Hezbollah militia group, the Pentagon said, two days after a US civilian contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base.

The Pentagon said it targeted three locations of the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militia group in Iraq and two in Syria. The locations included weapons storage facilities and command locations the group had used to plan and execute attacks on coalition forces.

The US had accused the group of the 30-plus rocket attack that killed the civilian contractor and injured four US service members and two members of the Iraqi Security Forces near the city of Kirkuk.

In Iraq, several Iraqi militia fighters were killed yesterday in an air strike on their headquarters near the western Qaim district on the border with Syria, sources said.

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Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iran that any attacks by Tehran or proxies that harmed Americans or allies would be “answered with a decisive US response”.

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