Iraq
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (left) and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani. Photo: AFP/PM Sudani's office
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in a phone call on Saturday warned US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin against taking any direct response to militia attacks without approval from Baghdad.
Sudani “emphasized the security services' capability to pursue and expose those involved in attacks, cautioning against a direct response without government approval,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
Since October 17, US troops based in Iraq and Syria have been attacked with one-way drones and rockets at least 78 times, causing injury to 66 personnel, according to the Pentagon. On Friday, rockets were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad, after which Sudani said any attack on a diplomatic mission is a “terrorist crime.”
The attacks are blamed on Iranian-backed Iraqi militias angry over Washington’s support for Israel in its fight against the Palestinian Hamas Movement in the Gaza Strip.
The US has responded with drone and airstrikes. On November 22, US warplanes struck pro-Iran fighters in Jurf al-Nasr (formerly Jurf al-Sakhar) in northern Babil province, killing eight members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi). Another five PMF fighters were killed in a US drone strike in Kirkuk on December 3.
Sudani expressed to Austin his displeasure about American retaliation: “He highlighted the importance of avoiding a repetition of incidents like the attack in Jurf al-Nasr.”
The Pentagon said in a press release that in the phone call Austin “underscored that the United States reserves the right to act in self-defense against those launching any attack against U.S. personnel.”
The Pentagon blames two Iran-backed militia groups, Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, for most of the attacks. Both groups are designated terrorist organizations by the US.
Sudani also condemned Washington’s retaliatory airstrikes during an earlier phone call with US State Secretary Antony Blinken, describing them as a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty” since they took place without his government’s knowledge.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019.
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