The Iraqi foreign ministry said Friday it was summoning the U.S. and British envoys following deadly overnight airstrikes on military installations in the country.

The United States waged a series of precision airstrikes on Thursday against an Iran-backed militia in Iraq which it blamed for a major rocket attack a day earlier that killed two American troops and a British soldier. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in a Pentagon statement detailing the strikes, cautioned that the U.S. was prepared to respond again, if needed. 

"We will take any action necessary to protect our forces in Iraq and the region," Esper said.

Iraq's military condemned the strikes on Friday and said they had killed six people and wounded 12, describing them as targeted aggression against the nation's formal armed forces and a violation of sovereignty.

The Pentagon said the strikes targeted five weapon storage facilities used by Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups, including facilities housing arms used in past attacks on U.S.-led coalition troops. But an Iraqi military statement said no paramilitary fighters had been killed.

(With input from AFP)

(Cover: U.S. soldiers clear rubble from a site of Iranian bombing at Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar, Iraq,  January 13, 2020. /AP)