Four fighters from the pro-Iran group Kataeb Imam Ali were killed in an airstrike “probably by Israel or the US” in northern Iraq, the armed faction reported. The bombing targeted a position belonging to Hashed al-Shaabi, an alliance of factions now integrated into Iraq’s regular army. And it came after the downing of a drone on Monday night near the United Arab Emirates consulate in Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, which sparked condemnation from Arab countries.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command sent a statement condemning this attack that “martyred” its members in a “treacherous bombing.” “This attack does not constitute an attack against a specific post, force or headquarters, but rather a blatant attack against Iraq,” the note stated.
So far in the US and Israeli war against Iran, several locations of these militias in Iraqi territory have been hit by missiles and bombs of unknown origin. These attacks occurred in parallel with calls from the United States to the Iraqi Government to protect its diplomatic facilities – which have received repeated attacks in recent days – in the face of violent protests and the US accusation against militia groups aligned with Iran in Iraq.
In a phone call, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al Sudani asked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his country’s territory “not be used for any action against neighboring or regional states,” while rejecting violations of its airspace “by any party.”
For its part, the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, claimed that they had attacked a US base in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
rml (efe, afp)
