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US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel speaking to reporters on February 8, 2024. Photo: handout
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel on Thursday said that Washington respects Iraqi sovereignty, shortly after Baghdad leveled accusations to the contrary.
A US drone strike in eastern Baghdad’s Mashtal neighborhood in the late hours of Wednesday killed three, including Abu Baqer al-Saadi, a leading commander of the pro-Iran Kataib Hezbollah armed group.
Yehia Rasool, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s military spokesperson, on Thursday said “the American forces jeopardize civil peace, violate Iraqi sovereignty, and disregard the safety and lives of our citizens.”
“We have full respect for Iraqi sovereignty and the Iraqi government itself has rejected these kinds of attacks and US and coalition forces,” Patel told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a press briefing late Thursday.
Rasool also said that the US strike “would undermine the established understandings and hinder the initiation of bilateral dialogue.”
He warned that “This trajectory compels the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict.”
Baghdad has repeatedly accused Washington of violating its sovereignty in recent months.
Washington on Friday night launched a major retaliation campaign against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, striking more than 85 targets and killing at least 16 Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters and injuring another 36 in Iraq’s western Anbar province, near the Syrian border.
The airstrikes were carried out in retaliation to the recent drone attack that took place at a military base in Jordan late last month and killed three American soldiers. US President Joe Biden warned that the response would be carried out in multiple phases.
American troops have come under more than 165 rocket and drone attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan by Iran-aligned militia groups condemning Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip since mid-October. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the IRGC, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
A US drone strike in eastern Baghdad’s Mashtal neighborhood in the late hours of Wednesday killed three, including Abu Baqer al-Saadi, a leading commander of the pro-Iran Kataib Hezbollah armed group.
Yehia Rasool, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s military spokesperson, on Thursday said “the American forces jeopardize civil peace, violate Iraqi sovereignty, and disregard the safety and lives of our citizens.”
“We have full respect for Iraqi sovereignty and the Iraqi government itself has rejected these kinds of attacks and US and coalition forces,” Patel told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a press briefing late Thursday.
Rasool also said that the US strike “would undermine the established understandings and hinder the initiation of bilateral dialogue.”
He warned that “This trajectory compels the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict.”
Baghdad has repeatedly accused Washington of violating its sovereignty in recent months.
Washington on Friday night launched a major retaliation campaign against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, striking more than 85 targets and killing at least 16 Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters and injuring another 36 in Iraq’s western Anbar province, near the Syrian border.
The airstrikes were carried out in retaliation to the recent drone attack that took place at a military base in Jordan late last month and killed three American soldiers. US President Joe Biden warned that the response would be carried out in multiple phases.
American troops have come under more than 165 rocket and drone attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan by Iran-aligned militia groups condemning Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip since mid-October. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the IRGC, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
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