General says U.S. still launching air strikes in Iraq

U.S. forces carried out two air strikes in June against militants targeting American troops, including one against an Iranian-backed militia, a spokesman for the military mission said Tuesday, according to AFP.

The comments marked the first time the U.S. military had acknowledged calling in air power recently against militants in Iraq, as American troops prepare to withdraw from the country by the end of the year under a security pact.

In one of the strikes, Iranian-backed fighters were staging a rocket attack on a U.S. base in Basra near the city's airport, Brigadier General Jeffrey Buchanan, spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, told reporters.

In the second air strike, U.S. forces killed two militants who were spotted with a detonator wired to a roadside bomb on a route where U.S. convoys were headed, he said.

About 46,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq.