Iraq labels US ‘factor of instability’ after three killed in drone attack
The US military presence in Iraq has become a “factor for instability” and must be ended, the Iraqi military has said, as it responded angrily to a US drone strike on a car in Baghdad that killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia.
Yehia Rasool, the spokesperson for the commander of the military forces, accused the US of conducting “a blatant assassination through an airstrike in the heart of a residential neighbourhood in the capital, Baghdad, showing no regard for civilian lives or international laws.
“By this act, the American forces jeopardise civil peace, violate Iraqi sovereignty, and disregard the safety and lives of our citizens.”
Claiming the US mission deviates increasingly from its stated objectives in Iraq, he said: “This trajectory compels the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict.”
The US is already in talks with Iraqi officials about their continued presence, but the attack in Baghdad, undertaken without any prior consultation, is going to make those talks even more fraught.
Qasim al-Araji, Iraq’s national security adviser, said the attack was “a cowardly and reprehensible act, targeting Iraqi sovereignty”.
He said: “The Iraqi government has a clear and explicit decision to end the mission of the international coalition in Iraq.” Inside Iraq’s fissiparous parliament the calls were already intensifying for an unambiguous withdrawal date to be set.
The strike on Wednesday came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad. The US said it had targeted and killed a Kataib Hezbollah commander responsible for the 27 January attack on a US base on the Jordan-Syrian border that led to the death of three US soldiers, and injury to dozens. One of the three killed was Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s drone operations in Syria, and so the likely mastermind of the 27 January attack.
A large crowd gathered in eastern Baghdad for his funeral. Shia clerics, and at least one Sunni, as well as tribal leaders and fighters in a variety of military uniforms, listened to speakers who climbed into the back of a pickup truckto give eulogies in honour of the slain commander. “Abu Bakr represents a new generation of resistance fighters … since 2003, he has conducted hundreds of operations, killing scores of Americans both in Iraq and Syria,” said one senior leader of Kataib Hezbollah.
US military bases have been under sporadic assault from Iranian-backed militia for years, but the pace of those attacks increased after 7 October with the Hamas killing of hundreds of Israelis. It is estimated that US and allied troops have been attacked more than 165 times since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Last week the US, deploying American B-1 bombers, fired at 85 Iranian backed militia sites in Syria and Iraq reportedly killing 40 people. At the time the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said “this is the start of our response”. On Tuesday Israel struck the Shuyrat airbase and several locations on the outskirts of Homs, Syria.
In a statement, US Central Command claimed responsibility for the Baghdad killing and said there were “no indications of collateral damage or civilian casualties at this time”.
Centcom said: “The United States will continue to take necessary action to protect our people. We will not hesitate to hold responsible all those who threaten our forces’ safety.”
Muhammad Karim Mohammad Karim al-Beldawi of the Coordination Framework, the Shia leadership coalition that oversees Iraqi political factions linked to Iran-backed militias, said: “The American attacks do not need condemnations, positions, and statements any more.” He pointed out that “there are supposed to be measures by governmental and parliamentary committees to end the foreign presence in Iraq”.
Kataib Hezbollah acknowledged the US strike and said: “This calls for steadfastness on the path of jihad,” which often refers to armed struggle. Last week, seemingly under pressure from Iran, it had announced a ceasefire.
Two other members of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq called for retaliation. The Harakat al-Nujaba movement said: “Our response will be decisive, and these crimes will not go unpunished. Let this be our path and our foremost cause from now on and onwards.”
The leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq called for the “immediate withdrawal” of US-led coalition forces in Iraq. “It is clear that denunciations and condemnations are no longer sufficient, which necessitates the need for Iraq to submit an official request to the UN security council, demanding the immediate withdrawal of foreign forces,” Qais alKhazali, the secretary-general of Asaib
Ahl al-Haq, said on X.
Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, has declared a statewide mourning to honour the victims of the armed forces and civilians, denouncing Washington’s “violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”.
The US strike in the middle of the capital, as opposed to relatively remote militia ammunition depots in Syria, is likely to be seen as the most brazen incursion of Iraqi sovereignty since Donald Trump in January 2020 sanctioned the Baghdad assassination of the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, and the Kataib Hezbollah
leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The issue will be whether the attacks weaken the militia or instead spur them into a new phase in which they attempt to attack US bases elsewhere, including in Kuwait and Jordan.
A crowd gathered on Wednesday as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage. Security forces closed off the heavily guarded “green zone”, where a number of diplomatic compounds are located, amid calls for protesters to storm the US embassy.
Not all of Iraq’s numerous militia groups back attacks on the US. Within Iraq, the Kurdish and Sunni group wanted to retain the US presence believing it acts as a ballast against further
Iranian influence that has grown since the US invasion in 2003.
The Kurdistan regional government for instance repeatedly criticises Sudani’s administration as ineffectual and complicit in funding and arming outlawed groups.