Biden orders attack on pro-Iran group – Telemundo Miami (51)

President Joe Biden has ordered strikes against Iranian-backed militias in response to a drone attack that wounded three US soldiers in northern Iraq.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said one soldier was seriously injured during the attack early Monday. The Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia and pro-Iranian groups claimed responsibility for the attack.

Biden, who is spending Christmas at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, was briefed on Monday's attack and ordered the Pentagon to present him with response options.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the national security team quickly laid out plans and laid out options during a phone call. The president ordered strikes against three sites used by Kataib Hezbollah and its affiliated groups.

The latest attack on American soldiers comes after several months of escalating threats and actions against Washington's forces in the region since the October 7 Hamas incursion into southern Israel that sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

The United States has blamed Iran, which has provided funding and training to Hamas, for escalating violence by its network of proxy groups in the region, including Houthi attacks in Yemen against military and commercial ships on a key trade route in the Red Sea. sea.