A U.S. drone strike on Wednesday targeted a senior commander of a pro-Iran militia group in Baghdad, triggering a new wave of anger and demands for troop withdrawals in Iraq. Washington officials defended the strike on Thursday (February 8) and warned that the United States would not hesitate to take action again if US troops were attacked again.
“We fully respect the sovereignty of Iraq,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “However, if our troops had not been attacked, there would be no need for retaliatory strikes. Our troops were responding to the Iraqi attack.” The government invited them to be stationed there.”
Many U.S. military officials conveyed similar remarks from the Pentagon. Gen. Daniel Hokanson, commander of the U.S. National Guard, said of the attack on the U.S. base in Jordan: “If you attack and hurt our people, we know who you are and we will find you.”
In the context of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, Iraqi militiamen often claim to launch attacks on US military bases in Iraq and Syria, saying this is retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza. Nearly 170 cases have occurred since mid-October last year.
A drone attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan at the end of January claimed the lives of three U.S. service members and injured more than 40 people.
The United States accused the Iraqi stronghold of the Islamic Resistance Movement, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, of carrying out the deadly attack on a Jordanian military base that bore the hallmarks of Kataib Hezbollah. Wednesday’s airstrike in Baghdad targeted the senior commander of Kataib Hezbollah, Abu Baqir al-Saadi.
In addition, the United States last Friday carried out large-scale strikes on 85 targets related to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and its proxies in Iraq and Syria, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets, missiles, drones, ammunition warehouses, and other facilities.
However, these retaliatory strikes prompted growing anger among Iraqi officials and calls for the U.S. to withdraw its troops.
The Iraqi military said earlier on Thursday that the airstrike that killed Saadi was a “blatant assassination with disregard for civilian lives and international law” and “forced the Iraqi government to terminate the coalition mission.”
A social media post from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also said it was “time to leave” for U.S. troops and those from the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State terror group. U.S. officials say the time has not yet come to evacuate.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said: “In Iraq and Syria, the number of U.S. troops has been reduced, but they have not withdrawn.” “The international coalition will continue to work hard to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State.”
Ryder further said that the Islamic State The country “cunningly” takes advantage of the turbulent situation. He added, “When Iranian proxies attack troops on mission, that obviously doesn’t help.”
The United States has about 2,500 troops in Iraq to help pursue the remnants of the Islamic State. There are another 900 US troops stationed in Syria with the same mission.
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