Blast rocks Iran-backed military base in central Iraq

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Overnight explosions at a military base housing Iraqi armed groups backed by Iran on Saturday killed one fighter and caused injuries. The United States military denied responsibility. 

The explosions hit Kalsu military base in Babil province, south of Baghdad, which houses fighters of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi). 

The PMF said in a statement that an investigation was underway into the explosion that “caused material losses and injuries.”

Images and videos on social media showed a large fire at Kalsu, which was a US military installation until 2011.

In a later statement, Iraqi authorities said that the explosions killed one PMF member and injured at least eight others.

Addressing the US statements, the country’s Security Media Cell confirmed that “no drone or warplane was present in the airspace of Babil before or during the explosion.”

The US has, in the past, carried out airstrikes against these armed groups, but denied any responsibility for the incident at Kalsu.

“We are aware of reports claiming that the United States conducted airstrikes in Iraq today. These reports are not true. The United States has not conducted air strikes in Iraq today,” the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X. 

The strikes come as Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani is on a visit to Washington, where he met with US officials including President Biden and reiterated Iraq’s resolve to wind down the mission of the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq. 

The Iraqi government has repeatedly said it wants to end the presence of foreign forces in the country after the US carried out deadly retaliatory strikes targeting state-linked armed groups that are backed by Iran, to Baghdad’s ire. The strikes were in response to hundreds of rocket and drone attacks targeting American installations and troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan since October 17 by Iraqi armed groups angry over Washington’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza. 

Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS. The troops have come under attack dozens of times since Israel began its war in Gaza last October, but the attacks have been paused since early February. 

A Babil security official stated that the presence of large craters at the site indicate a forceful attack. 
 
“What we found were large explosions, fires, and traces of very large craters in the ground, indicating strikes from missiles or the like,” Muhannad al-Anazi, head of Babil security, told Rudaw. 

Israel has not commented on the incident, which occurred a day after explosions in Iran’s Isfahan amid fears that growing violence between Iran and Israel may engulf the region.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for repeated attacks on US forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. 

On Saturday, the militias said they had targeted Israel’s southern city of Eilat in response to “the Zionist enemy’s violation of Iraqi sovereignty and the treacherous targeting of the Popular Mobilization Forces’ bases.”

The PMF was formed when a group of militias responded to a 2014 call-to-arms from revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to fight ISIS. While the force has been officially integrated into the Iraqi security apparatus, militias within their ranks operate outside of Baghdad’s control and receive support from Iran.

Updated at 03:50 pm

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