Iraqi government condemns US attack on pro-Iranian militias on its territory

Aug. 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Iraqi government on Wednesday condemned the US bombing of positions of the pro-Iranian Shiite militia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad the previous day, where at least four people were killed and three wounded, in an act it considered a “flagrant violation” of the country.

“Once again, coalition airstrikes have targeted one of our security forces’ sites in Babylon Governorate, resulting in the martyrdom and injuries of several PMF members. We deplore this unjustified aggression (…) We condemn in the strongest terms this blatant aggression, which constitutes a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty,” reads a government statement reported by the Shafaq News agency.

He added that the United States and the forces of the international coalition against the Islamic State are in a process of negotiations with Baghdad to withdraw from the country, which is why he hopes that “this dangerous violation of security by the forces of the international coalition will be the last on Iraqi territory.”

Finally, he said that such attacks “will only serve the interests of terrorist organisations that are waiting to harm the security of Iraq and the entire region.”

The previous evening, the US Department of Defense confirmed to Europa Press that it had carried out a “defensive” airstrike in the city of Musayib against “fighters attempting to launch unmanned aerial systems for unidirectional attack.”

The bombing, which comes at a time of heightened tension in the region following Israel’s recent attack on a senior commander of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah in Beirut, is the first by the United States in Iraq since February, when it attacked dozens of targets linked to pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria. At the time, the Islamic Resistance of Iraq militia, which killed three American soldiers in Jordan, announced the cessation of its actions against American forces, and the Iraqi government called for the expulsion of US troops.