Extreme Emergency Among American Forces in Iraq
The network quoted two sources as saying that the threat level of the American forces participating in the international coalition in Iraq has been raised.
The two sources added that the contractors at Balad base north of Baghdad have been placed in a state of extreme emergency.
This situation may last for several days, and is a routine precaution, given the conditions on the ground, according to “Fox News”.
A source said the main priority was to protect coalition forces, so it was put on alert.
As for the base of Balad, it hosts the company “Sallyport Global” contracted with the US government, and the company took a similar measure in anticipation of the attacks.
The United States launched air strikes against pro-Iranian militias in Syria at dawn on Friday, in response to the missile attacks on the base of Erbil International Airport in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
These strikes were the first military attack under US President Joe Biden.
The US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, said that he was confident that the targets that were struck in Syria were being used by armed militias involved in the attack on Erbil airport, which hosts US forces.
The Pentagon statement issued by the office of his spokesman, John Kirby, said that the US defensive air strike “was carried out with high accuracy against Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, supported by Tehran, inside Syrian territory.”
“You will not get away with it. Beware,” Biden told reporters while traveling to Texas to see the damage caused by a severe winter storm.
Later, Biden indicated that Iran could not get away with it, and advised it to be “cautious” when asked about the message he was sending to it about the US air strikes in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Syria stated that the US raids had killed at least 22 militants, most of them from the Iranian-backed “Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades” militia.
On the other hand, the militias admitted killing only one of their gunmen, and wounding others.
