Iraq and US at odds over ‘treacherous’ air strikes
The United States and Iraq are wrangling over the impact of air strikes to avenge the deaths of coalition soldiers this week, with a top US general saying the munitions hit military targets, while officials in Baghdad said Iraqi troops and a civilian were among the dead.
The US military said it launched ‘‘defensive precision strikes’’ against targets linked to the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah group, calling them a proportional response to a rocket attack that killed one British and two American soldiers on Thursday.
Marine General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, the chief of US Central Command, said the strikes were carried out by manned aircraft and hit five weapons storage facilities believed to be used by Kataib Hezbollah south and west of Baghdad.
But in Iraq, the strikes have been met with a flurry of condemnation, and risk intensifying the pressure on US-led coalition troops to leave the country.
The Iraqi military described the action as ‘‘treacherous’’, and Iraqi President Barham Salih described it as a ‘‘violation of national sovereignty’’.
Leading military and political figures said three soldiers and two policemen were killed in the attacks, along with a civilian who was working at an airport under construction.
Another Iran-aligned militia said that further strikes could prompt retaliation involving an ‘‘eye for an eye’’.
It was unclear if any militiamen were killed in the strikes, although McKenzie said he expected fatalities.
Tensions between the US and Iran have soared in the years since US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal involving the two nations, and Iraq has emerged as one of their most volatile proxy battlegrounds.
Authorities in charge of Karbala International Airport said one of their facilities had been hit and a civilian working had been killed.
McKenzie acknowledged that one of the strike sites was at a civilian airport. The locations were ‘‘clearly terrorist bases’’, he added, and if Iraqi military forces were there, ‘‘it’s probably not a good idea to position yourself with Kataib Hezbollah in the wake of a strike that killed Americans and coalition members’’.
McKenzie insisted that the Karbala airport site had been used to store weapons.
The strikes risk compounding tensions between the US-led coalition and an array of political and armed forces who want Western soldiers to leave Iraq. Kataib Hezbollah has threatened Iraqis working with the US-led coalition and told them to distance themselves before today or face attacks.
Iran backs a handful of powerful militias in Iraq, including Kataib Hezbollah, and representatives of each group hold positions within the state apparatus.
The death of a US contractor in a rocket attack in Iraq late last year set in motion escalating titfor-tat strikes that brought Washington and Tehran to the brink of war. Trump ordered the killing of renowned Iranian military commander Major General Qasem Soleimani, and Iran hit back with a wave of missiles that injured more than 100 US soldiers.
Tensions have ebbed since January, but US and European officials say Iran-backed militias have continued to launch rockets at Iraqi military bases hosting coalition troops, and at the US Embassy in Baghdad.