Iranian militants were allegedly killed in an airstrike in Iraq amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
Saudia Arabia’s Al-Arabiya claimed that the strike on a paramilitary base killed Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists, but Iran denied losing any forces, The Jerusalem Post reported. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted a Shia Islamist base where Iranian missiles were reportedly being kept.
Airstrike allegedly leaves Iranian militants dead
Much about the attack, which Iraq is investigating, remains shrouded in mystery. The strikes reportedly occurred overnight Friday, not long after the U.S. shot down an Iranian drone in the Persian Gulf, which Iran denied.
The strike targeted a base of the Hashd al-Shaabi — also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iranian-backed Shia Islamist group, in the northern Iraqi province of Salaheddin. Al-Arabiya reported that several Iranian and Hezbollah militants were killed. The Saudi news outlet also claimed that Iranian missiles were recently brought to the base in food trucks.
A drone reportedly dropped two explosives, one on compound housing advisers from Iran and Lebanon, and another on a weapons depot. At least two Iranians were wounded, according to the Iraqi military and paramilitary forces. For its part, the Iranian-backed militia acknowledged that two Iranians were injured, but denied that any Revolutionary Guards or Iranian advisers were killed.
“Opposite to what the biased media said, no advisers or IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) forces have been killed,” Ali al-Hosseini said on Saturday. The group said that one Iraqi fighter was killed, however.
Iran blames ISIS, Israel
It’s not clear who is behind the attack, but the Shia PMF and an Iraqi official blamed the Islamic State, a Sunni terror group, which Iraqi security forces and Iranian-backed militias have fought together, the Associated Press reports. However, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Arab media outlets, citing Iraqi sources, pointed the finger at Israel.
Israel has remained silent on the strike, while the United States and the U.S-led coalition against ISIS have denied any involvement. “We are aware of open source reports of possible aggressive actions against a Popular Mobilization Force unit in Salah ad-Din,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson. “U.S. forces were not involved. We have no further information about this report.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed that the drone was the same used by Israel in attacks on Iranian bases in Syria. Israel and the United States have warned of the threat of Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East, and Israel has admitted to launching airstrikes on Iranian forces in Syria to stop missile shipments across the Levant to Hezbollah and protect the Jewish state from Iran’s aggression, The Jerusalem Post reported.
A minister in Israel’s ruling right-wing Likud party boasted Sunday that Israel is the “only country” in the world that has killed Iranians and that Israel has “hit the Iranians hundreds of times in Syria.”
Rising tensions
The strike comes amid mounting tensions between the United States and Iran — and Iraq has been caught in the middle. The Fertile Crescent country is allies of both nations, and has worked with Iranian militias to combat ISIS. Iraqi sources told the Kuwaiti al Jarida paper that Iraq’s government probably will not blame Israel for the incident to avoid complicating its position.
The United States has a little over 5,000 troops stationed in Iraq. According to Reuters, Iraq is seen as a potential theater of battle between the United States and Iran if the current tensions spill over into violence, given the proximity of U.S. and Iranian-backed paramilitary forces.
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