Iraq’s military said US airstrikes in the south of the country killed three Iraqi soldiers, two police officers, and one civilian. On Friday, US officials said they launched airstrikes in Southern Iraq against targets where weapons are stored by Kataib Hezbollah, a Shi’ite militia group.
The US was retaliating for a rocket attack on a military base near Baghdad that killed two US soldiers, and one British soldier. The US blamed the attack on Kataib Hezbollah, but offered no evidence to back up the claim. In a statement, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth Mackenzie said, “we have information that confirms Kataib Hezbollah conducted the rocket attacks on Camp Taji on March 11th.”
These latest provocations are similar to the series of events that resulted in the US assassinating top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January. Those events were sparked by a rocket attack on a military base that killed a US contractor, which the US also blamed on Kataib Hezbollah. Iraqi intelligence officials recently said the December rocket attack was more likely carried out by ISIS.
Iraqi officials also said five members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were injured in the most recent US airstrikes. The PMF is an umbrella organization of Iraqi militias that have fought together against ISIS since 2014. Kataib Hezbollah is a member of the PMF.
The US presence in Iraq is not only a point of contention for the Shi’ite militia groups in the country, but also the Iraqi government. After the assassination of Soleimani, Iraq’s parliament voted to expel all US troops from the country. The killing of Iraqi government security forces will likely cause more calls for the US to leave.
The recent U.S. strikes on Iraq have claimed the lives of soldiers, policemen and a civilian, the Iraqi military’s Joint Command revealed on March 13.
“The Iraqi leadership stresses its strong condemnation of this attack that targeted the Iraqi military, violating the principle of partnership and alliance between Iraqi security forces and those who planned and carried out this treacherous attack [the U.S.], which caused the loss of lives of Iraqi fighters,” the Joint Command’s statement reads.
https://southfront.org/recent-u-s-strikes-on-iranian-backed-forces-killed-iraqi-soldiers-policemen-civilian-only-videos/
The Iraqi leadership should not just condemn these attack by the US but should make the US stay in Iraq untenable by cutting off all access to the US bases denying these bases of water , supplies and electricity. Make their lives hell like they have made Iraq hell.
Well that went well, at least no actual generals were killed.
So, in a supposed retaliation raid against some non-governmental Shia militia, the US manages to kill or wound 14 Iraqi military or police personnel. What are we missing here? They also managed to hit an airport that was under construction.