Iranianbacked militia promises to avenge strikes
BAGHDAD — An Iranianbacked militia said Monday that the death toll from U.S. military strikes in Iraq and Syria against its fighters has risen to 25, vowing to exact revenge for the “aggression of evil American ravens.”
The U.S. attack — the largest yet targeting an Iraqi statesanctioned militia — and the calls for retaliation represent a new escalation in the proxy war between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Middle East that could threaten U.S. interests in the region.
The Iraqi government said it will reconsider its relationship with the U.S.led coalition — the first time it has said it will do so since an agreement was struck to keep some U.S. troops in the country. It called the attack a “flagrant violation“of its sovereignty.
The calls for revenge in Baghdad came a day after Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Washington had carried out military strikes targeting the Iranianbacked Iraqi militia it had blamed for a rocket attack that killed an American contractor in Iraq last week.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the U.S. will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardize American lives.
The U.S. military said “precision defensive strikes” were conducted against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq and Syria. The group, which is a separate force from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, operates under the umbrella of the statesanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran.
“Our battle with America and its mercenaries is now open to all possibilities,” Kataeb Hezbollah said in a statement. “We have no alternative today other than confrontation and there is nothing that will prevent us from responding to this crime.”
The U.S. blames the militia for a rocket barrage Friday that killed a U.S. defense contractor at a military compound near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, as well as for a series of other attacks on bases that house American troops in Iraq that have not been claimed by any faction.
A spokesman for Kataeb Hezbollah denied that the group was behind the rocket attacks on U.S. bases, including the one that killed the American contractor, saying Washington is using them as a pretext to attack his group.
The spokesman, Mohammed Mohieh, told the Associated Press the death toll from the American airstrikes rose to 25 and that at least 51 militiamen were wounded.
The U.S. has maintained some 5,000 troops in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help assist in the fight against the Islamic State group.
In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi condemned the U.S. strikes against Kataeb Hezbollah as an “obvious case of terrorism” and accused Washington of ignoring Iraq’s sovereignty.
Lebanon’s Iranbacked Hezbollah also blasted the “brutal American aggression,” saying those who made the decision to carry out the attack “will soon discover how stupid this criminal decision was.”