State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Friday that “numerous Iran-aligned militias are operating freely in Iraq, where they threaten the security and stability of Iraq, U.S. personnel, and U.S. partners in the region.”
Miller highlighted the assessment of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who called the attacks by US personnel “acts of terrorism.”
“We call on Iraqi security forces to immediately investigate, arrest those responsible for these attacks, and bring them to justice,” a State Department spokesperson said. “The Iraqi government has repeatedly promised to protect American diplomatic missions and military personnel.”
“This is non-negotiable, as is our right to self-defense,” Miller emphasized.
The protection of diplomatic staff, advisers and coalition assets was also the topic of a phone conversation Friday between Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani.
The US Secretary of Defense condemned the attack on the embassy in Baghdad and a series of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks and stressed that the United States reserves the right of self-defense against any attack on US personnel.
Austin confirmed that most attacks against coalition personnel are carried out by the Iranian-backed militant groups Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, both designated as terrorist organizations.
The Pentagon chief stressed that attacks by Iranian-backed militant groups undermine Iraq’s sovereignty and stability, threaten the security of the country’s civilian population and slow down the campaign to defeat the Islamic State.
The US embassy in Baghdad was attacked with missiles early Friday morning. The bombing caused minor material damage and there were no casualties. This was reported by US and Iraqi officials.
About seven mortar shells hit the US embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack early on Friday, a US military official told Reuters. This was the largest attack of its kind in recent memory.
The bombing caused minor material damage and there were no casualties.
It was the first confirmed attack on the US embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government buildings and embassies, since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas (designated a terrorist organization by the US).
U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria also came under rocket and drone attacks at least five more times on Friday; three times at separate bases in Syria and twice at the Ain al-Asad air base west of Baghdad, another U.S. defense official said.
