Baghdad says the United States “has become a factor of instability and threatens to drag Iraq into the cycle of conflict.”
Iraq denounced a US drone strike in Baghdad that killed a commander of an Iran-aligned group, saying the US-led military coalition in the country is becoming a “factor of d ‘instability’.
Army spokesman Yahya Rasool said Thursday that repeated U.S. attacks in Iraq are pushing the government to end the coalition mission.
The United States has carried out frequent attacks targeting Iran-backed armed groups that it says were behind missile and drone strikes against its troops in Iraq and Syria.
On Wednesday evening, a senior commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed armed group in Iraq that the Pentagon has linked to an attack that killed three American soldiers in Jordan, was killed in a drone strike on a vehicle in east of Baghdad, security sources said.
The targeted vehicle was used by the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, which includes dozens of armed groups, many of which are close to Iran.
Rasool said the U.S.-led coalition “has become a factor of instability and threatens to drag Iraq into the cycle of conflict.”
US forces are “repeatedly and irresponsibly” carrying out a “clearly defined assassination operation”, he said, adding that such strikes have “disregard for civilian lives and international law”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was “bombing targets in the region not to fuel escalation but to prevent escalation”, according to Tel Aviv Tribune’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from the US capital.
“This has clearly raised a lot of questions, because the escalation we have seen in the region is directly correlated and openly blamed on the Israeli bombardment of Gaza,” Rattansi said. “But the one thing the United States will not do is try to stop Israel from bombing Gaza.”
Rasool said the U.S. strikes are even more concerning because “the coalition is constantly deviating from the reasons and objectives for its presence in our territory.”
The United States maintains several military bases in Iraq that it and its allies use to fight ISIL (ISIS).
Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani said talks would take place to end coalition missions in the country.
“Administration officials are also saying that this is not over, that there will be more attacks at a time and place of the United States’ choosing,” Rattansi said.
“Targeted retaliation”
Iraq’s Harakat al-Nujaba movement promised “targeted reprisals”, saying “these crimes will not go unpunished”.
He said U.S. “violations” would not stop without “a firm official position from the Iraqi government.”
The Palestinian group Hamas said the strikes constituted a “violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and security,” according to a statement.
Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Iran, for its part declared that “the resistance movements in the region have complete confidence” in their Iraqi counterparts and that the assassination of the commander will only encourage them to continue their actions of support for the Palestinians.