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At least 15 fighters of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces were killed in an early-morning air strike in the country's east on Tuesday, followed hours later by a strike on the PMF's headquarters in the north that its leader also used as a home.
The PMF, an umbrella group of mainly Iran-backed militias, said its commander of operations in Anbar province, Saad Al Baiji, was among those killed in the early-morning strike. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28.
Late on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, who is also commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces, led an emergency meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security to discuss the war in the Middle East and its effects on Iraq.
The council decided to defend the country and respond to the "unjustified aggressions and grave violation for sovereignty" on Iraqi security forces, the PMF and the Peshmerga, according to a statement.
It ordered to respond to attacks on PMF and other security forces “with all available means, based on the principle of self-defence”, it said.
The Anbar air strike, which it described as a “heinous and brazen crime” by PMF, is the latest in a series of attacks on Iraqi security forces. “The continuation of this aggressive approach and repeated brutal crimes against our brave security forces, who are doing their national duty, confirms a clear and pre-planned policy to target our courageous forces,” the statement added.
At around noon on Tuesday, a drone struck the PMF's main headquarters in Nineveh province that also served as a residence for its leader, Falih Al Fayyadh, the group said.
At least one fighter was injured and the building was significantly damaged, it added. Videos filmed by the residents and posted on social media showed the drone flying low as black smoke billowed from the building. Mr Al Fayyadh, who has been sanctioned by the US over rights abuses, was not there at the time, a PMF official said.
The PMF accused the US of being behind the attack in Anbar, where rescue teams continued searching for survivors and recovering bodies until midday. Footage from the site showed emergency workers using shovels and pickaxes to dig through the debris.
Separately, six Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed and 30 injured when a base in Iraq's Kurdistan region was hit by Iranian ballistic missiles in two attacks, the region's Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs said.
It condemned the attacks on the headquarters of the 7th Infantry Division and a force from the 5th Infantry Division in the Soran border area, north of the regional capital Erbil, as a “hostile act of injustice and treachery”.
“We have every right to respond to any aggression against our people and our land,” the ministry said. It called on the federal government, the international community and allies to act against such “reckless aggression”.
The Kurdistan region has been the target of more than 200 attacks by Iran and pro-Tehran Iraqi militias, including drone and missile strikes on Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, since the Iran war began. The region's leaders have warned there are limits to its restraint.
The Ministerial Council for the National Security has also ordered the Foreign Ministry to file a complaint with the UN Security Council over the attacks by Iran and US and summoning the US charge d'affaires and Iranian ambassador to protest against the attacks.
Pro-Iran groups in Iraq began launching drone and rocket attacks on American interests in the country soon after the war began, including on military bases and diplomatic missions, hotels, oilfields, refineries and residential areas.
Neither the US nor Israel have claimed responsibility for the attacks on bases used by the groups across Iraq, which have killed dozens of their members.
Kataib Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organisation by Washington, said last Wednesday that it would suspend attacks on the US embassy for five days. On Monday, it announced the pause would be extended for another five days.
The Council has also vowed to prosecute those involved in attacks on security institutions and diplomatic missions, and holding leaders accountable for any delays.
The PMF was formed after ISIS seized large parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014, as US-trained security forces collapsed and thousands of Iraqis answered the call to arms by influential Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. Several powerful Iraqi Shiite militias joined the ranks of the PMF shortly afterwards, some of which had been fighting alongside the Assad regime's forces in Syria’s civil war.
After ISIS was declared defeated in Iraq in late 2017, Iran-aligned Iraqi militias within and outside the PMF emerged as a powerful military and political force that has defied the government and opposed the presence of US coalition troops in the country.
While officially part of Iraq’s security apparatus under the control of the commander-in-chief, many PMF factions maintain parallel chains of command and are widely believed to answer to Tehran. The situation has prompted calls from within Iraq and from allies such as the US to integrate the PMF into the regular security forces.
