Nine members of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were killed by what were likely US airstrikes in Iraq on Thursday, as Iraq has become a major battlefield in the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Unnamed Iraqi security officials told AFP that the strikes targeted a PMF base near the Iraq-Syria border housing Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, a militia that’s part of the PMF and is under US sanctions. The PMF is a coalition of mostly Shia armed groups formed in 2014 to fight ISIS and is a branch of Iraq’s official security forces.
The security officials said the attack also wounded 10 people and suggested it was a double-tap strike. “The base was destroyed, and the rescue teams who arrived at the site were also targeted,” one official said.
The PMF said the US was responsible for the strike and said the base hasn’t been used for recent attacks against US assets in Iraq. The US has launched multiple rounds of airstrikes in Iraq since the war started on February 28, and US bases and facilities have been targeted by drone attacks.
In its statement on the US strikes, the PMF said that “all fighters killed were carrying out their official duties, and some were stationed near the borders,” and called the PMF an “essential part of Iraq’s security apparatus.” Four PMF fighters were also killed by suspected US airstrikes on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), another more shadowy coalition of Shia groups that includes some of the militias in the PMF, claimed that its fighters carried out “31 operations using dozens of drones and missiles against the occupation bases in Iraq and the region” over 24 hours. According to the US State Department, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya is part of the IRI.
A drone swarm hit a British military base in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, on Wednesday night, and according to British media, US troops were injured in the attack.
