Iran-backed militias blame US for attacks on bases in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi paramilitary forces backed by Iran accused Israeli drones of carrying out a series of attacks on bases run by the militias, saying Wednesday that they hold the United States ultimately responsible. The militias vowed to defend themselves against any future attack.

The rare and combative statement by the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, came in the wake of at least three mysterious explosions at PMF bases around Iraq over the past month. A government investigation, obtained by the Associated Press on Wednesday, found that one of the blasts, last week near Baghdad, was caused by a drone strike.

American officials denied the U.S. had any role in the explosions.

Asked about the mounting speculation that Israel was striking in Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday struck his country’s traditional stance of neither denying nor confirming such operations.

“Iran has no immunity, anywhere ... We will act — and currently are acting — against them, wherever it is necessary,” he said during a visit to Ukraine, quoted in the Times of Israel.

If Israel did carry out the bombings, it would be an expansion of its campaign against Iran’s spreading influence in the region. Israel is known to have struck Iranian targets in Syria on numerous occasions — as well as in Lebanon and Sudan in the past. But the last time Israel was known to have struck inside Iraq was in 1981, when Israeli fighter jets bombed an under-construction Iraqi nuclear reactor south of Baghdad.

The PMF’s statement was the latest sign of Iraq’s fragile government getting caught in the middle amid the tensions between Iran and the United States. Iran wields powerful influence over the Iraqi government through its support of the PMF militias, which were a major force in the fight against the Islamic State group.

At the same time, Iraq hosts American troops and forces belonging to the U.S. coalition fighting IS, which conduct frequent reconnaissance missions and occasional airstrikes.

There was no immediate comment from government officials to the PMF statement, which appears to have been issued without prior consultation with Iraqi security forces — an embarrassing sign of how the militias operate independently.

The PMF said in its statement that it had information that the U.S. brought four Israeli drones from Azerbaijan to Iraq “as part of the U.S. fleet” to carry out reconnaissance and targeting of militia positions.

It was not clear from the statement who the PMF was accusing of directly carrying out the attacks. But it said it holds the U.S. “ultimately responsible for what happened, and we will hold it responsible for what will happen as of today. We have no choice but to defend ourselves and our bases with the weapons at our disposal,” said the statement, signed by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the powerful deputy head of the PMF who once battled U.S. troops in Iraq.