The United States government sent 75 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles on Dec. 19 to Iraq's air forces to help them battle al-Qaida terrorists, and they plan to send more in the future, Washington and Baghdad officials told the Associated Press.
Intelligence officials and military officers said the missiles have already destroyed four militant camps and are being used by four Iraqi King Air propeller planes near Syria for a large scale Iraq military operation, the AP reported.
U.S. States Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed the previous and future missile shipments and added the U.S. government has plans of sending ScanEagle drones to Iraq as well, according to the AP.
"The United States is committed to supporting Iraq in its fight against terrorism through the Strategic Framework Agreement," Psaki said. "The recent delivery of Hellfire missiles and an upcoming delivery of ScanEagles are standard foreign military sales cases that we have with Iraq to strengthen their capabilities to combat this threat."
The Hellfire missiles have already been used by the U.S. military in their war against al-Qaida, and is commonly used to attack militant hideouts or vehicles, the AP reported.
The Iraq operation against al-Qaida members is taking place in Anbar, a province made up mostly of desert and began shortly after an Iraqi senior military commander, a colonel and six soldiers were killed, the AP reported.
The United Nations estimates more than 8,000 people have died in Iraq in 2013 and on Thursday, rockets hit a camp called Liberty where members of an anti-Iran group that were fighting against the Baghdad government, according to the AP.
As a mix of reports came in, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, located in Paris, said in an email that "dozens" of rockets were dropped, while and Iraqi security officials said only four rockets hit the camp, and only two people were wounded, the AP reported.
Iraq authorities also said rockets hit another camp nearby but did not cause any damage or casualties, according to the AP.