Iraq denies involvement in US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region— Iraq’s Ministry of Defense has "expressed its surprise” at a Pentagon statement saying Iraq provided the US with intelligence before Washington launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias on the Iraq-Syria border on Thursday.

The ministry denied its involvement in the airstrikes, saying that it was "surprised by the statements of the US Secretary of Defense about the participation of Iraqi intelligence regarding an exchange of intelligence information with Iraq to target Syrian territories."

The statement added that the ministry's cooperation with the international coalition forces is limited to a "specific goal", which is fighting ISIS, not combatting militia groups linked to Iran. 

The US Defense Department said it had carried out airstrikes at a Syria-Iraq border control point used by Iranian-backed militias, destroying "multiple facilities." The strikes came in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel, according to spokesperson John Kirby's statement.

Kirby said the location was used by Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, two armed Iraqi Shiite groups part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), an umbrella network of paramilitary forces, some of which are backed by Iran.

Twenty-two militiamen were killed in the strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

The Pentagon stated that the operation was carried out with intelligence from Baghdad, which helped determine the militia groups behind several rocket attacks targeting the US presence in Iraq. 

"We allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence for us, and that was very helpful to us in refining the target," Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said.

“It was a team effort between Iraq and the US. Very good work was done on the intelligence side by Iraq that helped lead to these successful strikes. But this is not unusual, there is a mission in Iraq based on invitation of our Iraqi partners, countering ISIS. Information sharing is a routine process.

Several rockets were fired at Baghdad's Green Zone, home to foreign missions, including the US embassy, on Monday night.

It followed a similar attack on Balad Air Base on Sunday, injuring one contractor, and a rocket attack on Erbil on February 15, which left two people dead and thirteen injured.

In recent months, several seemingly newly established groups have claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Western diplomatic and security installations. A little-known militant group by the name of Saraya Awlia al-Dam (Guardians of Blood Brigades) claimed responsibility for the Erbil attack.

US and Iraqi officials have told AFP they believe such factions to be "smokescreen" entities for more prominent pro-Iran groups including Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq.

Although Kataib Hezbollah denied involvement in the attacks, Austin said that the powerful pro-Iranian organization was behind them.

"We're confident in the target we went after. We know what we hit." Austin said.

Earlier on Thursday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said in a televised interview that the rocket launchers are "terrorists, not resistance fighters."

"There is no resistance in Iraq as Iraq is a democratic state. The rocket launchers are not resistance fighters but terrorists, and they are against the government and against the people," Hussein said.

He noted that the Iraqi government started a strategic dialogue with the United States in June 2020, which resulted in the reduction of US forces in Iraq to less than 2,500.

Kataib Hezbollah issued an official statement to Telegram condemning the US attacks on its sites, considering Iraqi cooperation and involvement in this operation as "treason."

"What Americans said about the cooperation of the Iraqi security apparatus in providing intelligence information to enable the US to target the sites of Iraqi forces defending their homeland - if this is proven - it is a dangerous admission of the treacherous role," it said on Friday. 

"As we affirm the legitimate right of our Iraqi people to respond to this cowardly criminal operation, in revenge for our martyrs, we call on the honorable people in the Iraqi parliament and political forces to take effective action to expel the American occupation forces and prosecute the traitors who collude with them," the statement added.

Abu Walaa Al-Wali, an official in the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades that was targeted by the US on Friday, said that "the American aggression is expected, as the resistance factions are fighting a war against the US occupation," adding that "were surprised by the Iraqi foreign minister's delirium about the resistance factions and his doubts about their role in defending the homeland."

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also condemned the US strikes.

"This aggression contradicts international law and the United Nations Charter," it said, warning the attack would have consequences.