Calls continue to mount in Iraq for the departure of a U.S.-led coalition following a U.S. strike that killed a Shiite militia commander in Baghdad.
On Feb. 8, Iraqi army spokesman Yahya Rasool warned that the U.S.-led coalition had become “a factor for instability [that] threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict.” One day earlier, the U.S. military carried out what it described as a “unilateral strike” on targets in eastern Baghdad.
The strike killed a commander of the Kataib Hezbollah group, an Iraqi Shiite militia said to be linked to Iran.
In a statement, the Pentagon said the commander—who it did not name—was responsible for “planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.” The target of the U.S. strike was later identified as Abu Baqir al-Saadi, commander of the group’s operations in Syria.
The Iraq-based Kataib Hezbollah—not to be confused with Lebanon’s Hezbollah—is regarded as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.
Baghdad typically condemns attacks on U.S. forces deployed in the country, which have become increasingly frequent in recent months.
But Iraqi officials have also condemned Washington’s heavy-handed responses to those attacks.
Tahsin al-Khafaji, an Iraqi military spokesman, described the strike that killed Mr. al-Saadi as “a clear act of aggression and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.”
Mr. Rasool, for his part, decried the strike as a “blatant assassination ... in the heart of a residential neighborhood in the capital.”
Roughly 2,500 U.S. troops are currently deployed in Iraq, while another 900 are stationed in eastern Syria.
The deployments are part of a U.S.-led coalition ostensibly tasked with preventing a resurgence of the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) terrorist group.
Damascus views the U.S. military presence in Syria as an “illegal occupation.”
U.S. forces deployed in Iraq, by contrast, remain in the country based on an agreement with Baghdad.
‘Unacceptable Act’
The Feb. 7 strike that killed Mr. al-Saadi was not the first of its kind.On Jan. 23, the U.S. military struck multiple sites that the Pentagon said were used by Kataib Hezbollah “and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq.”
At the time, Mr. Rasool condemned the barrage as “an unacceptable act that undermines years of [U.S.-Iraq] cooperation.”
On Feb. 2, the U.S. military launched a wide-ranging wave of strikes on positions in both Iraq and Syria, also said to be linked to Iran-backed militia groups.
U.S. military officials said the strikes hit 85 targets associated with Iran-backed groups and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, 23 Syrians—mostly military personnel—were killed in the strikes.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state security body comprised of several militia groups, said 16 of its members had been killed. The Iraqi and Syrian governments later said the strikes had also killed several civilians.
Soon afterward, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Washington had notified Baghdad of the impending bombardment.
But four days later—after angry protestations from Iraqi officials—Mr. Kirby corrected himself, saying Baghdad was not provided with advance warning.
The Feb. 2 strikes came in response to an earlier attack on a U.S. base in Jordan that killed three U.S. military personnel and left dozens more injured.
Responsibility for that attack was later claimed by the self-styled “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” a confederation of mostly Shiite militia groups.
In recent months, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has carried out scores of attacks, typically using missiles and drones, on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. The attacks coincide with an ongoing Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that has left thousands of Palestinians dead.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has vowed to continue targeting U.S. forces deployed in the region until Israel calls off its offensive. It also demands the immediate departure of all U.S. troops from Iraq and Syria.
Further complicating the situation, several of the groups operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq are also affiliated with Iraq’s PMF.
In 2016, Baghdad designated the PMF as an “independent military formation” within the Iraqi military.
Several PMF-affiliated groups participated in the fight against ISIS after the latter overran large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Calls Mount for US Exit
Repeated U.S. strikes on Iraqi targets have been accompanied by calls emanating from Baghdad for an end to the U.S.-led coalition’s mandate.Following a U.S. strike on Baghdad early last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani stated his “firm position on ending the international coalition [in Iraq] now that the justification for its existence has ended.”
“Let’s agree on a timeframe … so they [U.S. forces] don’t remain long, and attacks don’t keep happening,” he said on Jan. 10.
Late last month, Iraqi and U.S. officials began holding talks with the ostensible aim of setting a timeline for ending the U.S.-led coalition’s mandate in Iraq.
But the talks were suspended within 24 hours after the U.S. base in Jordan came under attack.
In a Feb. 6 phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Iraq’s foreign minister, Fuad Hussein, called for a speedy resumption of talks.
Two days later, Iraqi army spokesman Mr. Rasool said bilateral talks were slated to resume on Feb. 11.
The Epoch Times has asked the U.S. State Department to confirm the spokesman’s assertion.
