The US Pentagon affirmed that last week's airstrike on Babylon Governorate in Iraq was defensive; targeting combatants that were attempting to launch an attack on US forces. In a briefing late Friday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that July 30 attack was purely defensive, noting that it will not affect the US-Iraqi talks on a joint higher military committee. "We have been very, very clear that we will take measures in order to ensure our forces are safe in the region and that's what you saw with that July 30th strike. We were taking measures because we saw that an attack was about to be launched on our forces," she pointed out. Source: Kuwait News Agency