ERBIL,Kurdistan Region – US officials have said they will “not tolerate” direct attacks on US or coalition forces following Friday morning airstrikes against weapon storage facilities across Iraq, prompting Iraq's Foreign Ministry to summon the UK and US ambassadors to Baghdad.
US warplanes launched retaliatory strikes against the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia in the early hours of Friday in response to Wednesday’s rocket attack on Iraq’s Taji military base which killed two Americans and one Briton.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) released a statement on Friday calling for “immediate deescalation” from all sides.
“UNAMI condemns the continued loss of life and calls upon all parties to act with maximum restraint in keeping with international law. Partnership and dialogue are the only way to build Iraq’s strength and to prevent a resurgence of Daesh,” the statement said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Pentagon officials described the airstrikes that targeted five weapons facilities in Iraq as “defensive, proportional, and in direct response to the threat posed by Iranian-backed Shia militia groups (SMG)”.
“We assessed that each location stored weapons that would enable lethal operations against US and coalition forces in Iraq,” the US Central Command’s leader Gen.Kenneth F McKenzie Jr. told reporters at a Friday press conference.
This week’s attacks ruptured a period of relative quiet since the US assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3, prompting a flurry of airstrikes on bases across Iraq.
However, US-Iran tensions remain high, according to McKenzie.
“The illusion of normality is just that: it’s an illusion,” he said.
The spokesperson of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Ahmed al-Sahaf, released a statement on Friday announcing that the ministry held an emergency meeting with undersecretaries and advisors to discuss the “recent U.S. aggression,” and "directed” the summoning of the US and British ambassadors to Baghdad.
“We believe this is going to have an effect on deterring future strikes of this nature,” McKenzie told reporters.
“I would caution Iran and its proxies from attempting a response that would endanger US and coalition forces our or partners,” he said, adding that Kataib Hezbollah have been involved in 12 rocket attacks against coalition forces in the last six months.
“We’ve seen in the past what happens when you don’t respond. Now people know that we’re not going to tolerate these direct attacks on American or coalition service members,” the general said.
