Iraqi army to consider US strikes on Hashd al-Shaabi targets ‘acts of aggression’

ISTANBUL 

Iraq will consider US air strikes on the headquarters of the pro-government Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) “acts of aggression,” a military spokesman said Wednesday.

“In a clear determination to harm security and stability in Iraq, the United States has resumed carrying out airstrikes against the locations of Iraqi military units from the army and the Popular Mobilization Forces, in the areas of Jurf Al-Nasr and Al-Qaim,” said Yehia Rasool in a statement cited by the Iraqi official news agency INA.

“We will treat these operations as acts of aggression and take necessary actions to preserve the lives and dignity of Iraqis on their land,” he added.

The military spokesman said that the US airstrikes undermine years of cooperation with the US army, and stressed that such acts endanger the region by expanding the conflict, as “repercussions of the (Israeli) aggression on Gaza.”

On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they carried out strikes against three facilities used by the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq amid attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria.

“These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias,” he said in a statement.

The retaliatory strikes came days after multiple missiles targeted Iraq’s Ain al-Asad military base, which houses US troops.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of militias which has accepted responsibility for dozens of attacks recently on US and coalition forces in Iraq.

Tensions have escalated in the Middle East when Israel launched a devastating onslaught against Gaza in retaliation to the Palestinian Hamas group’s cross-border incursion in Israel on Oct. 7, with US bases in Iraq and Syria coming under attack by Iran-backed groups while attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on commercial ships in the Red Sea continue.

• Hashd al-Shaabi
• Iraq
• The U.S.-led international coalition