Iraqi security sources reported on Sunday, December 3, that an airstrike in northern Iraq claimed the lives of at least five militants affiliated with Iran. This occurred just one day after Baghdad issued a warning to Washington, cautioning against any “attacks” on its sovereign territory.
An air strike in northern Iraq killed at least five pro-Iranian militants on Sunday, Iraqi security sources said, a day after Baghdad warned Washington against “attacks” on its territory.
The raid targeted a site used by an armed group affiliated with Hashd al-Shaabi, a coalition of former paramilitary forces integrated into Iraq’s regular military, a senior security official in Kirkuk province said, without saying who launched it.
A defense official in Baghdad said “a drone targeted a position of al-Nujaba group in the Dibis area” near the border of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
The strike resulted in “five dead and five wounded”, the official said.
Late Sunday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq — a loose formation of armed groups affiliated with the Hashd al-Shaabi — announced in a statement the deaths of “five martyrs”.
It said they were killed during fighting with “American occupation forces in Iraq”.
It came a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said during a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Baghdad rejected “any attack on Iraqi territory”, according to a statement from Sudani’s office.
Sudani also said the Iraqi government is committed “to ensuring the safety of the international coalition advisers present in Iraq”.
Washington counted at least 76 attacks on its forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17 — 10 days after the start of the Israel-Hamas war — according to an updated tally given by a US military official.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
