Iraq says US strikes violation of its sovereignty
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi government on Monday condemned a US operation against five military outposts of the Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hizbollah (KH) militias that killed and wounded dozens of fighters.
“The prime minister described the American attack on the Iraqi armed forces as an unacceptable vicious assault that will have dangerous consequences,” the office of outgoing PM Adil Abdul Mahdi said in a statement, according to a Reuters translation.
The US strikes came on Sunday and targeted five facilities on the Iraqi–Syrian border areas belonging to the KH group, which the US considers a terrorist organization, a designation that came following a series of attacks on American and Iraqi forces.
The operation came in response to a lethal attack on the K-1 military base that houses Coalition troops and killed an American civilian contractor. KH falls under the Iraqi security apparatus and is a member of the umbrella Hashd al-Shaabi militias, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an alliance of Iraqi fighters whose commanders are close allies of Iran.
According to reports, the American airstrikes killed at least 25 militia fighters and wounded 55. Casualties are expected to rise due to the severity of some of the injuries.
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Baghdad “condemns this act and considers it a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and a dangerous breach of the rules of action of the coalition forces, including the American forces, by carrying out operations without the approval of the Iraqi government,” Abdul Mahdi’s office said in another statement following an emergency National Security Council meeting the PM chaired.
US officials have repeatedly warned Iran and its proxies against targeting Iraqi facilities where American and Coalition troops and advisors are based. US representative for Iran, Brian Hook, has reportedly estimated that about 11 such attacks have taken place over the past month.
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The Iraqi statement added that the US strikes had “targeted Iraqi forces holding an important front on the border against remnants of the ISIS terrorist organization.”
It claimed further that Baghdad “has made strenuous efforts to prevent frictions and reduce confrontations in a country and region that has lived through decades of” instability.
The American strikes “push” Iraq to review its relationship with the coalition, the statement concluded.
These developments come amid underlying tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s continued violations of the 2015 nuclear accord after the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the deal and reinstitution of sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany