Six killed as US airstrikes hit Iran-backed militants in Iraq

BAGHDAD: US air strikes targeting pro-Iranian military factions in Iraq killed one civilian and five security personnel on Friday, the Iraqi military said, warning the raids risked a bloody escalation in the war-battered country.

The Pentagon said the strikes were in retaliation for rocket fire against an Iraqi base on Wednesday night that killed one British and two US military personnel, the deadliest such attack in years.

The US strikes hit bases hosting personnel from the statesponsored Hashed al-Shaabi military network, US military officials said. The same bases also host Iraqi government forces.

Among those hit were areas controlled by Kataeb Hezbollah, a hardline Hashed faction that the US has blamed for several attacks on foreign troops in Iraq.

The Iraqi military said its preliminary death toll from the air strikes was three Iraqi soldiers, two policemen and one civilian working at an unfinished airport south of Baghdad.

There were no Hashed members among the dead but the toll could rise as some bodies were still stuck under the rubble, the statement said.

Hashed fighters were among 11 Iraqi fighters wounded in the bombardment, some of them critically. One civilian was also wounded.

The military warned the air strikes risked “escalation and deterioration of the security situation in the country, and exposes everyone to more risks and threats.”

President Barham Saleh condemned them as a violation of the country’s sovereignty that could “slide Iraq into anarchy and chaos”.

The foreign ministry denounced “American aggression” and summoned the US and British ambassadors over the strikes, saying it would lodge complaints with the United Nations and the UN Security Council.