U.S. officials on Tuesday said American forces struck a base near Baghdad, Iraq, used by the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Iran-backed Shiite militias that have launched numerous terrorist attacks on American forces since the beginning of the Gaza war.
Iraqi sources said the strike killed four PMF members and wounded four others. The Iraqi government condemned the strike as a “heinous crime” and a violation of the U.S.-led coalition’s mandate to help Iraq combat the Islamic State.
Yehi Rahool, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said the U.S. attack was a “blatant aggression.”
“They targeted, with fighter jets coming from beyond the borders, Iraqi sites belonging to security forces in northern Babil province,” he said:
Such serious and uncalculated violations can significantly undermine all efforts, mechanisms, and frameworks of joint security work to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. They could also drag Iraq and the entire region into conflicts, wars, and serious repercussions.
The PMF and Iraq’s leading Iran-backed militant organization, Kata’ib Hezbollah, were curiously subdued in their response to the strike. The PMF simply reported that the attack occurred, without identifying the attackers, although it added a demand for the Iraqi government to “make an immediate decision for the expulsion of foreign forces from our country.”
Kata’ib Hezbollah said that a U.S. strike, launched from Kuwait, took out a “group of drone experts” who were supposedly doing maintenance work on reconnaissance drones. The Iraqi militia warned Kuwait not to let its territory serve as a base for “American criminal actions.”
U.S. officials confirmed the strike took place and said the targets were militants threatening to launch drone attacks against American forces.
The last U.S. action against Iraqi militias took place in February, but the militias launched rockets and a drone at U.S. forces in July. The PMF rocket attack reportedly failed to cause any casualties or damage.
The American defensive strike against Iraqi militias came just hours after an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, a commander of Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
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