Iraqi MP calls for international coalition against Israel over attacks on Hashad al-Sha’abi

An Iraqi lawmaker has called on the Baghdad government to forge an alliance with countries that have protracted disputes with the United States in order to strike Israel in the wake of recent airstrikes in the country against the positions of pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi.

“The persistence of the Israeli regime and its targeting of military sites within our territory have not occurred unexpectedly, but rather under the auspices of the United States. They (Americans) opened the Iraqi airspace for them, and orchestrated all of this scenario. They are partners to the targeting of our territory,” the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted Mansour al-Baiji, a member of the State of Law political coalition, as saying in a statement released on Wednesday.

PressTV-‘Israel struck Iraq from northern Syria with Saudi backing’

An Iraqi official says the recent Israeli drone attacks targeting a pro-government military force were launched from militant-held northern Syria, with Saudi Arabia's support.

He then called on Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, President Barham Salih and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi to refrain from "condemnation and denunciation," and instead “strike up alliances with the great powers that have disputes with (the United States of) America and bolster relations with Russia and China in a bid to ensure international protection” for Iraq.

On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said his country’s armed forces were fully prepared to respond firmly to any act of aggression launched either from outside or inside Iraq.

PressTV-‘Iraqi forces ready to respond to any aggressive move’

Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi says Iraqi armed forces are fully prepared to respond to any act of aggression wither from outside or inside the country.

“The prime minister pointed to the high readiness of our armed forces to defend Iraq, its citizens and state institutions in addition to diplomatic missions operating in Iraq. He also stressed the Iraqi forces’ readiness to respond firmly and by all means available to any aggression launched either from outside or inside Iraq,” Abdul-Mahdi’s media office said in a statement released following a cabinet session in the capital Baghdad.

The statement added, “Abdul-Mahdi also touched on the ongoing diplomatic contacts with all neighboring countries besides Arab and regional states as well as the international community in order to explain the position of Iraq and mobilize regional and international support for solidarity with it and its just position and its policy in support of peace and stability.”

PressTV-Iraq to act diplomatically against sovereignty breach

A top Iraqi official says Baghdad will take appropriate measures to defend its sovereignty.

The remarks came a day after the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Baghdad government would take all available diplomatic and legal actions to prevent the violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Also on Monday, Iraq's military said it has launched an investigation into a purported Israeli strike that killed two Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters near the town of al-Qa’im close to the country's western border with Syria.

PressTV-Hashd al-Sha’abi: Israel killed two fighters near Syria border

Iraq’s pro-government Popular Mobilization Units says Israel was behind the recent deadly drone attack that killed two near the Syrian border.

An investigation is ongoing now to determine what happened with the strike,” the spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, told AFP.

Sayf al-Badr, the spokesman for the Iraqi Health Ministry, said in a statement that at least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in a powerful explosion, which rocked a military base in southern Baghdad on August 12.

An ammunition warehouse reportedly exploded inside a federal police military base, named Falcon, in Owerij area near the southern district of Doura.

PressTV-Blasts hit Hashd al-Sha’abi position north of Iraq capital

Several blasts have rocked a position of pro-government Hashd al-Sha’abi forces near Balad air base north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Arabic-language al-Ahad TV television network reported on July 19 that a drone had dropped explosives onto a base belonging to the Popular Mobilization Units near the town of Amerli, located about 170 kilometers north of the capital, in the early hours of the day, killing at least one PMU fighter and injuring four others.

Video footage broadcast by Iraqi channels showed a blaze burning at the site and plumes of thick smoke billowing. 

Additionally, the Iraqi al-Etejah television network reported that an American B350 reconnaissance plane had flown over the area a few days earlier.

The Israeli regime has a record of attacking the forces fighting Daesh in Syria.

PressTV-Iraqi Hashd al-Sha’abi vows revenge for Syria air raid

Iraqi voluntary Hashd al-Sha’abi forces have vowed a “suitable” response to the deadly strike on its fighters in eastern Syria.

In June 2018, Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.

Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Sha’abi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the United States.

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