Qais al-Khazali, who heads the Asaib Ahl al-Haq PMU group, said the blasts aim to weaken the PMU.
“The continuous blasts inside PMF warehouses without real investigations are a dangerous development,” al-Khazaali tweeted on Saturday. “There is an agenda working to target the capabilities of PMF inside Iraq.”
On Monday, a weapons depot belonging to the PMU at the al-Saqr military base in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad caught fire, resulting in explosives and mortar shells shooting into the sky. The blast damaged homes in the area and forced residents to rush into the streets, cell phones in hand. One person died, and 29 others were injured.
Al-Khazali said the incident is a matter of national sovereignty.
“National sovereignty will not be preserved unless there are full measures regarding THe storage of weapons and Iraq’s ability to defend its land and sky,” he also said in the tweet.
The cause of the explosions is still unknown. Some locals believe that the reason behind the blast is a wrong storage method that caused overheating, especially since the temperature in Baghdad is very high.
The blast has also given rise to a host of theories, including that Israel may have conducted an airstrike.
Israel has conducted many air operations against Iranian targets in Syria, and there has been speculation that Israeli jets would soon conduct airstrikes against such targets inside Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi has banned unauthorized flights and ordered all military camps and munitions warehouses to be moved outside Iraqi cities following the massive blast of al-Saqr in Baghdad.
In a statement issued Thursday following a national security meeting, Abdul-Mahdi demanded the cancellation of all aviation approvals for flights throughout the country unless authorized by the commander of the armed forces. The statement did not specify military or civilian flights, but specifically cited reconnaissance, fighter jets, helicopters and drones of all kinds.
The statement did not exclude neither any Iraqi nor non-Iraqi parties. US-led international coalition against ISIS warplanes frequently conduct airstrikes against ISIS’ sleeper cells in the country
The coalition, known as Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) released a statement on Friday announcing that US warplanes are in full compliance with the Iraqi government’s decision regarding its airspace.
“The US-led coalition immediately complied with all directions received from our Iraqi partners as they implemented the prime minister’s order,” the coalition said in a statement.
Nasir Harki, a member of the security committee in the Iraqi parliament, said that the Iraqi PM’s latest statement is in favor of the Iraqi sovereignty.
“The Iraqi PM’s decisions are very valuable for the sake of Iraq’s sovereignty, as it will prevent foreign and unknown jets from flying over Iraq,” Harki told Rudaw English Saturday. “The flight ban includes the Turkish jets in Kurdistan Region airspace as well.”
Turkey conducts frequent airstrikes against apparent Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant positIons in the Kurdistan Region.
Last month, an unknown aircraft struck a PMU base in Amerli, wounding two PMU members.
The mostly Shiite paramilitaries in the PMU were formed in 2014 based on a fatwa, or religious decree, by Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, to fight ISIS. The PMU have contributed to the fight against ISIS, but also receive support from Iran, which has exacerbated tensions with the US.
Abdul-Mahdi set a July 31 deadline for all PMU units to integrate into the Iraqi army. In opposition to the recall of a PMU unit from the Nineveh Plains, protesters blocked the Erbil-Mosul road in the area on August 5.
