Iraqi PM cautions against escalation after militia strike on US base
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani renewed his objection to any escalations of violence in Iraq yesterday, after the US promised to retaliate for an attack at the weekend on an Iraqi airbase that hosts American troops.
For the first time in more than three months, Tehran-backed militias fired ballistic missiles at Ain Al Asad base in western Iraq, wounding several American personnel and an Iraqi soldier.
The militias have said their attacks are intended to punish the US for its support of Israel’s campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas, and to force their withdrawal from Iraq.
During a meeting with Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren yesterday, Mr Al Sudani stressed his objection to “any aggression on Iraqi territory or threatening its sovereignty”, his office said in a statement. However, Iraqi officials expect further escalation.
“Using the ballistic missiles is a dangerous escalation,” a security official with the Interior Ministry’s intelligence department told The National. “They are trying to change the rules for engagement.
“The militia groups behind these attacks are showing no signs of abating, they are striking a defiant tone, introducing new weaponry and reaching new targets inside Israel.”
Iran-funded militias have been launching almost daily attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October, but up until now they have been limited to kamikaze drones and short-range rockets.
The White House said on Sunday that it is taking Saturday’s attack seriously.
“It was a very serious attack, using a capability of ballistic missiles that posed a genuine threat,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said.
Mr Finer told US news channel ABC that the US is “going to respond … to establish deterrence in these situations, and to hold these groups accountable that continue to attack us”. He added: “You can be assured that we are taking this extremely seriously.”
Most of the projectiles fired at the base were intercepted by anti-air defence systems but some hit the base, Mr Finer and the Pentagon said. The US did not give a specific number of wounded troops or the extent of their injuries.
Most of the strikes, including Saturday’s attack, have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
In recent weeks, the militias have claimed attacks in the occupied Golan Heights and the city of Elad in Israel.
Militias such as Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid Al Shuhada are the backbone of this network.
On Sunday, former Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, a leader of the Co-ordination Framework, the largest bloc in the country’s Parliament, which includes representatives of Iran-backed militias, held talks with the US ambassador to Baghdad before calling for “swift action to alleviate tension and to end the exchange of attacks that could lead to widening the war”.
An Iraqi government official told The National: “Both the Americans and militias are not listening to the government calls for calm. “With the war in Gaza continuing and Iran’s role getting bigger and bigger, day after day in the region, especially after the assassination of its senior security officials in Syria, we expect more escalation.”
Mr Al Sudani has announced moves to redraw relations with the US-led international coalition, which was formed in 2014 to fight ISIS.
The eventual goal of these moves, he said, is the withdrawal of all US troops from the country.
The Pentagon has said it has not been formally notified of any plans to end the US troop presence in the country, and that its forces are stationed in Iraq at the invitation of the government in Baghdad.
The US has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq, given the task of advising and assisting local forces in their efforts to prevent a resurgence of ISIS, which in 2014 seized large parts of both countries before it was eventually defeated.