Last Update: 2022-09-30 00:00:00- Source: Iraq News
A U.S. citizen was killed in an Iranian missile and drone attack in northern Iraq on Wednesday, a State Department spokesperson said.
“We can confirm that a U.S. citizen was killed as a result of a rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan region yesterday,” spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Thursday.
Patel said the administration was not releasing the name of the American out of privacy concerns, and he did not say how the U.S. would respond.
“I want to reiterate that we condemn Iran’s violations of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.
March 8, 202102:06
In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We stand with the people and government of Iraq in the face of these brazen attacks on their sovereignty,” he said.
The American’s death was first reported by Iran International, a Persian-language media outlet based in London.
Confirmation that an American was killed will ratchet up tensions between the U.S. and Iran and likely lead to calls from U.S. lawmakers to retaliate.
During Wednesday’s attack, a U.S. F-15 shot down an Iranian drone that posed a potentially serious threat to U.S. troops in the area, a U.S. military spokesperson said.
President Joe Biden previously ordered air raids on Iranian-backed militia outposts in eastern Syria after the groups launched rocket attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Iranian attack targeted an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq, Kurdish and U.S. officials said. Iran said it launched missile and drone strikes on “terrorist” bases.
Kurdish health officials in Iraq said that the death toll from the assault was at 13 and that civilians at a refugee camp were among the casualties.