Politics

Parliament's security committee urges Abadi to end 'US intervention' in Iraq after friendly strike incident

The Head of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi Parliament on Sunday called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to take "deterrent measures" against American troops in the country.

Karzan Sulaivany 2018/01/28 14:36

middle east Iraq United States Haider al-Abadi

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Head of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi Parliament on Sunday called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to take "deterrent measures" against American troops in the country.

Iskandar Wutwut, a leader of Iraq’s Security and Defense Committee, urged the Iraqi Prime Minister to take a stand and end US “interference” in Iraq following a friendly fire incident which killed and injured 18 local police forces in the Anbar Province on Saturday.

A US and Iraqi joint force mistakenly killed eight and injured at least 10 others during clashes with local police and tribal fighters in Anbar’s al-Baghdadi town.

The clashes took place at midnight when a US and Iraqi joint force raided the house of a terrorist suspect in Baghdadi town, about 190 kilometers northwest of Iraq’s capital, Captain Mohammed al-Dulaimi from the provincial police told Xinhua.

Both local police and tribal fighters were surprised by the operation and approached the site to identify the forces which resulted in clashes before US helicopter gunships shelled the police and tribal fighters.

In an interview with Watan News, Wutwut said the “bombing by the US forces in Baghdadi was a blatant interference and that it should never be accepted.”

“The American side did not inform the command of operations about the bombing, and this is not a permissible move by any foreign military on Iraqi territory without informing the government,” he added.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command said they had opened an investigation into the incident and would release further information soon.

Wutwut called on Abadi, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi armed forces, to take “deterrent measures” and form “an investigative committee to expose” future incidents and prevent them from reoccurring.

“There [should] be a unified decision by members of the House of Representatives to cancel the US presence in Iraq after this wrong intervention,” the Iraqi official stated.