US sends strong message to Iran proxies in Iraq
POMPEO ISSUES WARNING AS DEATH TOLL IN STRIKES ON MILITIA RISES TO 25
The US carried out air strikes against an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and Syria on Sunday night, killing 25 fighters and sending a strong message to Iran in the proxy war playing out in the Middle East.
However, Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi yesterday condemned the strikes on the Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades. “The prime minister described the American attack on the Iraqi armed forces as an unacceptable vicious assault that will have dangerous consequences,” his office said.
Iraq’s National Security Council also issued a statement saying the strikes will force Iraq to reconsider working with the US-led coalition against Daesh.
The US military said “precision defensive strikes” — the largest yet targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia — were conducted against five bases of Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria. It operates under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, which is supported by Iran.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the US will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardise American lives.
Brian Hook, the State Department’s Special Representative for Iran, said Washington had held back from responding despite a series of attacks tied to Iran, including 11 rocket assaults on US and coalition installations in Iraq since October.
“We very much hoped that Iran would not miscalculate and confuse our restraint for weakness. But after so many attacks, it was important for the president to direct our armed forces to respond in a way that the Iranian regime will understand.”
Meanwhile, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani condemned the US air strikes. The “illegal practices carried out by some sides” must not be used as a reason to violate Iraq’s sovereignty, his office said.
Iraq’s government yesterday warned that its relations with the US were at risk after deadly American air strikes against a pro-Iran group sparked anger on the streets with protesters torching US flags.
At least 25 fighters were killed in Sunday night’s attacks which saw US planes hit several bases belonging to the Kataeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades), one of the most radical factions of Hashed Al Shaabi, a Tehran-backed Iraqi paramilitary coalition.
Iraq’s National Security Council said in a statement the US air strikes were a violation of sovereignty. “American forces acted on their political priorities, not those of the Iraqis,” it said, adding that the attacks “force Iraq to review its relations and its security, political and legal framework to protect its sovereignty”.
The warning came as demonstrators torched US flags in the Shiite-dominated southern cities of Basra and Najaf and in Kirkuk north of Baghdad while lawmakers called for US troops to be booted out of Iraq.
Dozens of lawmakers called on the government to review an agreement allowing the deployment of 5,200 US soldiers in the country, saying the strikes amount to a violation that renders the pact obsolete.
Rare direct strike
Sunday’s rare direct strike on an Iranian proxy held the potential for escalation. The air strikes on five Kataeb Hezbollah bases in Iraq and Syria used by an Iranian-backed militia were a warning to Tehran, Brian Hook, the State Department’s Iran envoy, said.
“One of the things that we want to emphasise is that this was a defensive action that was designed to protect American forces and American citizens in Iraq,” Hook said yesterday. “We’re also working on the mission set of restoring deterrence against Iranian aggression.”
Rocket attacks on or near Iraqi installations that host American troops have occurred since the fall, and Pentagon officials have expressed concern about Iranian involvement. An American contractor was killed in such an attack on Friday, and several US personnel were wounded.
“They took a strike at an American facility,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said on Fox and Friends yesterday. “President Trump’s been pretty darn patient, and he’s made clear at the same time that when Americans’ lives were at risk we would respond, and that’s what the Department of Defence did yesterday.”
In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi condemned the US strikes against Kataeb Hezbollah as an “obvious case of terrorism”.