A senior Iraqi politician has strongly condemned the United States’ latest airstrikes against three sites used by anti-terror resistance forces in Iraq, saying the only solution to stop such illegal and aggressive attacks is the withdrawal of American occupation troops from the country.
Hadi al-Ameri, the secretary general of Iraq’s Badr Organization, made the remarks on Tuesday, calling on the Iraqi government to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops as soon as possible, while stressing that Iraq’s full sovereignty should be realized.
He also noted that there is no need for the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, warning that their presence will only destroy the country and shed the blood of Iraqi people.
His comments came a day after the US military carried out airstrikes against three facilities used by Kata’ib Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Hillah city, south of the capital Baghdad.
An Iraqi security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Arabic-language al-Sumaria television channel that 18 people sustained injuries in the strike, adding that a member of Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, was killed.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Monday that these precision strikes were “a response to a series of attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria, including an attack by Kata’ib Hezbollah and affiliated groups on Erbil Air Base earlier today.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of anti-terror fighters, in a statement published on its Telegram channel, claimed responsibility for the strike, which was carried out with a one-way attack drone and wounded three US military personnel.
Separately, Iraq’s al-Nujaba movement also condemned US airstrikes in a statement, saying Washington has once again violated the sovereignty of Iraq.
The movement went on to say that by committing this “heinous act” of targeting the headquarters of Iraq’s security forces, including the federal police and Hashd al-Shaabi as well as civilian infrastructure, the US has proved that it neither respects the country’s laws nor the will of its people.
The statement further noted that this behavior of the Americans has once again showed that the US has a military presence in Iraq not an advisory one as it claims.
There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of, what Washington claims to be, a fighting force against Daesh. The US has maintained its presence, although, the Arab countries and their allies defeated the Takfiri terrorist group in late 2017.
According to US officials, at least 103 attacks against American troops in Iraq and Syria have been reported since mid-October.
