Pro-Iran militias increase attacks, rhetoric against foreign troops
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has called on the United States and Iran "to avoid settling scores in Iraq."
On July 5, three Katyusha rockets targeted Ain al-Asad air base in the western province of Anbar. No casualties have been reported yet. On the same day, a drone tried to attack the US embassy in Baghdad but failed after the C-RAM defense system shot it down.
The United States last week targeted militias on the Iraqi border with Syria, killing a number of soldiers from the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). The attack was a response to the militias' previous attacks on several US bases and convoys.
Following the US attack, Hadi al-Amiri — head of the Fatah parliamentary bloc, which includes political wings of Iraqi militias — praised the continuing attacks against US facilities in Iraq by Iran-backed militias and said the United States would not have reduced its troop numbers last year had the resistance movement not struck US bases and interests in the country.
“The reason for the American withdrawal from Iraq is the heroic resistance strikes that made the American forces withdraw from Iraq in the manner of defeat,” Amiri said.
