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Iraq
From left: PMF logo, and a screengrab from a US Central Command (CENTCOM) video showing fighter jets taking off to strike Iranian and Iranian-backed targets in Iraq and Syria on February 2, 2024. Photo: CENTCOM
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - America’s midnight airstrikes against armed groups in Iraq killed three people, including a militia official, sources told Rudaw. The Iraqi government has condemned the strikes.
Washington launched a large-scale retaliation campaign on Friday night against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - Quds Force and affiliated militia groups in Iraq and Syria, striking more than 85 targets with over 125 precision munitions, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM). President Joe Biden said these attacks against the IRGC and pro-Iran militias will continue in both countries.
Qaim General Hospital received three dead and 25 injured, a health official told Rudaw. The Qaim district is in Iraq’s western Anbar province, on the border with Syria.
The head of logistics for the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), Abbas al-Daraji, is among the dead, an Iraqi source told Rudaw.
Civilians may also be among the dead and wounded, according to sources.
The strikes were ordered in retaliation for the deaths of three US soldiers in a drone strike carried out by pro-Iran militias on a US military base in Jordan last Sunday.
“This afternoon, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militias use to attack U.S. forces,” Biden said in a statement. “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
Iraq condemned the US action as “a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and an undermining of the efforts of the Iraqi government” at a time when the government and hardline Iraqi politicians are seeking to expel forces of the US-led coalition from the country.
“The cities of Qaim and the Iraqi border areas are subjected to American airstrikes,” said Major General Yehia Rasool, military spokesperson for Iraq’s prime minister, who called the strikes “a threat that will drag Iraq and the region into unforeseen circumstances.”
Baghdad has condemned repeated American airstrikes on Iraqi militia targets in the past several months and has begun discussions to phase out the US-led anti-Islamic State (ISIS) mission in the country as a response.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups continue to represent a direct threat to the stability of Iraq, the region, and the safety of Americans. We will continue to take action, do whatever is necessary to protect our people, and… pic.twitter.com/Y53nvRfjjx
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 3, 2024
“We will continue to take action, do whatever is necessary to protect our people, and hold those responsible who threaten their safety,” General Michael "Erik" Kurilla, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), said early Saturday.
Multiple targets including weapons depots, headquarters, radar points, and warehouses of the IRGC and its affiliated militias in Syria were also hit, according to DeirEzzor24. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 18 militia members were killed.
"We believe that the strikes were successful,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was cited by CNN as saying, adding that they do not know how many militants were killed in the overnight strikes.
Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US chose the locations of the strikes “with an idea that there would likely be casualties” among the IRGC and pro-Tehran militants, reported CNN.
Rudaw reporters in Baghdad, Halkawt Aziz and Anmar Ghazi, contributed to this article.
Updated at 9:25 am
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