The United States on Friday carried out strikes in Syria and Iraq against targets of elite Iranian forces and pro-Iran armed groups, in retaliation for a January 28 attack that killed three American soldiers in Jordan, near Iraqi and Syrian borders.
Bombings in Iraq, in areas on the border with Syria, killed 16 fighters from Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of former paramilitaries enlisted in the Iraqi forces, according to the group.
On Sunday, dozens of people attended their funeral in Baghdad.
“They targeted administrative premises, a (Hachd) hospital, they targeted forces responsible for protecting the borders,”
said the leader of Hachd al-Chaabi, Faleh al-Fayyad, in a speech during the ceremony.
“Targeting Hashd al-Chaabi is playing with fire
,” he insisted.
“We urge the Prime Minister to do everything in his power to defend Iraq’s sovereignty and dignity.
This will not be done without the departure of these forces from Iraqi territory, without purifying Iraqi territory of any foreign presence
,” asserted Faleh al-Fayyad, in reference to the international anti-jihadist coalition led by Washington.
Some 2,500 American soldiers are deployed in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria as part of the coalition created in 2014 to fight the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
In a context of strong regional tensions fueled by the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani has already initiated discussions with Washington on the future of the coalition with a view to obtaining a timetable which would allow a gradual withdrawal.
If ISIS has been routed, the coalition assures that its military advisers in Iraq are there only to provide training and advice to Iraqi forces in order to prevent a resurgence of ISIS.
Since mid-October, more than 165 drone strikes and rocket attacks have targeted American positions in Iraq and Syria.
Most were claimed by a nebula of pro-Iran armed groups called the
“Islamic Resistance in Iraq”
.