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New air strikes were launched against the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq at dawn on Thursday, killing at least one fighter and injuring several others.
The first strike hit the headquarters of the PMF's 6th Brigade in the town of Beiji, north of Baghdad, injuring three fighters, the group said. One of the wounded was in a critical condition.
Nearby, another strike attacked a checkpoint run by the PMF’s 31st Brigade near Al Siniya airport, killing one fighter and injuring several others.
“Rescue efforts have been hindered by continued enemy aircraft presence,” the group said. The PMF accused US and Israel of launching the strikes in the area, which is part of Salahuddin province.
Thursday's attacks comes as Iran-backed militias in Iraq have joined the Middle East conflict to support Iran in its war with the US and Israeli, which started on February 28. Some of the armed factions have fighters in the PMF.
The strikes came hours after comments made by Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan after a meeting of foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries in Riyadh.
The minister said PMF-linked “militias have been empowered to seize political decision-making power in Iraq to such an extent that development paths there have been disrupted”. He added that “these tools primarily serve to protect Iranian interests”.
Since the outbreak of the war, pro-Tehran militia groups have been attacking the US embassy in Baghdad, the US consulate in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and military bases hosting American troops. They have also claimed attacks against American troops in Jordan and Kuwait. In return, bases linked to militias and the PMF have been hit with several strikes.
Meanwhile, the powerful Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah has offered a five-day pause in attacks against the US embassy in Baghdad if several conditions are met.
Abu Mujahid Al Assaf, a security official from the group, said Israel must stop bombing the Dahieh suburb of Beirut. The suburb is a stronghold of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Mr Al Assaf also said the US must avoid bombing residential areas in Iraq, and CIA personnel stay inside the embassy compound. In recent days, several strikes hit militia leaders in houses in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Jadiriyah.
“If the enemy does not comply, the response will be direct and focused and the pace of the attacks will pick up,” he said.
In another development in Iraq, at least two drones attacked Umm Qasr naval base on the Gulf, causing minor damage including to a water treatment plant, a security official said. No casualties were reported.
The PMF was formed after ISIS seized large parts of northern and western Iraq in mid-2014, as the US-trained security forces collapsed and thousands of Iraqis answered the call to arms by influential Shiite cleric Ali Al Sistani.
Several powerful Iraqi Shiite militias joined its ranks shortly after, some of which had been fighting alongside former president Bashar Al Assad's forces in Syria’s civil war.
After ISIS was declared defeated in Iraq in late 2017, Tehran-aligned Iraqi militias within and outside the PMF have emerged as a powerful military and political force that has defied the government and opposed the presence of US coalition troops in the country.
The situation has prompted calls from within Iraq and from allies such as the US to integrate the PMF into the regular security forces.
