26 December 2023

Dangerous Escalation': Iraqi Government Condemns US Airstrikes

The strikes are the latest indication of how Israel’s war in Gaza is reverberating across the Middle East, where there is widespread outrage over the mounting Palestinian death toll.

Palestinian officials say that more than 20,674 people have been killed and 54,536 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched a surprise multipronged assault on southern Israel.
The revised death toll from Hamas’s attack stands at 1,139.
US officials have reported at least 103 attacks against its troops in Iraq and Syria since mid-October.

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Baghdad condemns U.S strike on Iraqi military positions | Reuters

Baghdad condemns U.S strike on Iraqi military positions

Reuters

December 26, 20232:42 AM PST Updated 3 hours ago

[1/4]A fighter of the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia group and a man inspect the site of a U.S. airstrike, in Hilla, Iraq December 26, 2023. REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani

BAGHDAD, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's government condemned on Tuesday overnight U.S. air strikes on Iraqi military positions that it said killed one serviceman and wounded 18 other people, calling them a "clear hostile act".

The United States has carried out retaliatory air strikes on Monday in Iraq after a one-way drone attack earlier in the day by Iran-aligned militants that left one U.S. service member in critical condition and wounded two others. read more

The government condemned the U.S. strikes as "an unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty," while stressing that attacks by armed groups against military bases hosting U.S-led coalition advisers are hostile acts and violate Iraqi sovereignty, a government statement said.

Two Iraqi security sources said overnight U.S. airstrikes targeted headquarters for Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah in the Iraqi city of Hilla south of Baghdad.
One fighter from Kataib Hezbollah was killed in the strikes and 16 were wounded, said two security sources on condition of anonymity.

The United States has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq on a mission it says aims to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swaths of both countries before being defeated.

Reporting by Ahmed Elimaml and Ahmed Rasheed, Editing by Angus MacSwan

US launches strikes on Iraq over drone attack blamed on Iran-aligned forces

Baghdad condemns strikes that killed an Iraqi security force member and wounded 18, as ‘hostile’ acts.

biden — US President Joe Biden has ordered strikes on several sites in Iraq [File: Alex Brandon/AP Photo]

Updated:

5 hours ago

The Iraqi government has condemned air strikes by the United States military on its territory as “hostile acts” after the Pentagon said it hit sites used by pro-Iran forces to target US forces.
The US strikes killed one member of the Iraqi security forces and wounded 18 people, including civilians, the government in Baghdad said on Tuesday, calling them an “unacceptable attack on Iraqi sovereignty” that would “harm bilateral relations”.

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Launched early on Tuesday, the US air strikes targeted three sites used by Kataib Hezbollah, a Shia armed group, and its affiliates, said US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson.

The strikes were a response to a Kataib Hezbollah attack the day before on Erbil airbase that wounded three US service members, one of them critically, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Austin said the “necessary and proportionate” strikes were intended to “disrupt and degrade” the capabilities of the Iran-aligned groups responsible for attacks against US personnel.

“While we do not seek to escalate [the] conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities,” Austin said.

‘Defend our interests ’US forces have repeatedly targeted sites used by Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq and Syria in response to dozens of attacks on American and allied forces in the region since the October 7 outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian war. . .