According to news agencies, the United States has confirmed an attack on the headquarters of an Iraqi paramilitary organization backed by Iran and the killing of one of its commanders. Prior to this, Iraq had protested to the United States for violating its national sovereignty in this attack.
According to a statement by a U.S. defense official reported by the AFP, the United States, while accepting responsibility for the attack, defended it and stated that this attack was carried out in self-defense.
Prior to the confirmation by the United States, Iraqi police sources announced that in a drone attack on a building in Baghdad on Thursday, January 4, four members of Iraqi paramilitary groups were killed, and six others were injured.
According to the Baghdad police, the attacking drones fired at least two missiles at a building in the eastern part of the city, which is used by the paramilitary group Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, one of the groups affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) and linked to Iran.
The U.S. strike targeted Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al Jawari, who according to the Pentagon was involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American targets.
“The strike also killed one other Harakat al Nujaba member,” said Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson. “No civilians were harmed. No infrastructure or facilities were struck.”
The police statement describes this group as a “Iraqi security entity” and states that “Iraqi armed forces consider the international coalition responsible for this unjustified attack on an Iraqi security entity.”
Iraqi police and paramilitary sources have said that the missiles fired on Friday targeted a vehicle inside the headquarters of the Nujaba group, killing a local commander of the group and one of his assistants. Medical sources have confirmed the number of casualties.
Iraqi security sources have said that they are awaiting the completion of government investigations before releasing further details about the attack.
Iraqi paramilitary commanders have accused the United States of carrying out this attack and have threatened retaliatory actions against the United States.
According to Reuters, Abu Aghil Al-Mousawi, a local commander of Iraqi paramilitary groups, said that Iran-backed militias will retaliate against this attack.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October, U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 100 times, usually with rockets and hostile drones. The United States has occasionally responded to these attacks, although critics of the Biden administration have accused him of being soft on paramilitary groups.
Pro-Iranian factions in Iraq and Syria, opposed to Israel’s operations in Gaza, consider the United States responsible for those operations and have identified it as the perpetrator of these attacks.
Last month, the United States initiated several airstrikes in response to a drone attack by Iran-backed paramilitary groups.
In that attack on a U.S. base, three American soldiers were injured, with one of them reported to be in critical condition.
In addition to their attacks on U.S. targets, Iran-backed militias have a long history of terrorist activities and human rights abuses. The PMF, which was formed under the guidance of Iran’s terror master Qassem Soleimani, was responsible for the death of thousands of civilians in Iraq, bombing attacks, and stoking the fires of sectarian violence in the region. The Iraqi population is resentful of Iran’s interference in their country and have on several occasion called for the disbanding of Iran-backed forces and the eviction of Iranian agents from their country.
