The head of the pro-Iranian Iraqi alliance, Hashd al-Shaabi, on Sunday demanded the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from the country after their deadly strikes. "They targeted administrative offices, a hospital, they hit forces tasked with protecting the borders," Faleh al-Fayad said at a funeral ceremony for members of the group killed in the US strikes. "Targeting Hashed al-Shaabi is playing with fire," he warned.
On Friday, US strikes in western Iraq hit positions of pro-Iranian groups in response to an attack in January on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
The pro-Iranian Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary group, now integrated into Iraq's regular security forces, said 16 of its fighters were killed in Friday's strikes and 36 others were wounded. "We call on the prime minister to do everything in his power to protect the sovereignty and dignity of Iraq. And this can only be done with the departure of all coalition forces from Iraq," Fayad insisted.
The US-led coalition was formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group, which has seized parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria, and Hashed has been instrumental in defeating the jihadists in Iraq.
There are approximately 2,500 US troops in Iraq and about 900 in Syria as part of the coalition. Tensions between the US and Iraqi governments have deepened in recent months after Washington carried out previous strikes in response to a wave of attacks on US-led troops since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October. Washington and Baghdad began talks on the future of the US-led military presence late last month after repeated requests by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for a timetable for their withdrawal. /BGNES, AFP
