Iraq
Footage shows smoke rising from a checkpoint in al-Qaim district, Anbar province, Iraq, on March 16, 2026. Photo: Screenshot / Submitted
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said on Monday that one of its positions at a checkpoint on the Iraq-Syria border in western Anbar province was hit by an Israeli strike, killing six fighters and injuring four others.
The PMF said its position at the Martyr Haider checkpoint in Anbar province’s al-Qaim district was hit by a “Zionist attack,” resulting in the killing of six of its fighters and the injury of four others.
Some PMF factions have carried out drone and missile attacks on US diplomatic missions and military bases in Iraq in support of Iran in its ongoing war with the United States and Israel. In response, several PMF bases - part of a force that was once a paramilitary group but is now integrated into the Iraqi state forces - have been targeted, resulting in dozens of casualties. Some of these strikes have been blamed on the US, though neither Washington nor Tel Aviv has claimed responsibility.
“The bombing was by warplane and directly targeted the Popular Mobilization Forces security room at the checkpoint,” at 3:30 pm, Abdullah al-Jughaifi, advisor to the security and defense committee of Anbar’s provincial council, told Rudaw.
Jughaifi said that in the same attack, a member of Anbar’s emergency police force affiliated with the Iraqi interior ministry who was at the checkpoint was wounded, along with two civilians.
More than two dozen fighters from the PMF were killed in suspected US strikes on their bases in Anbar and central Kirkuk province on Thursday.
Kataib Hezbollah in late February called on its fighters to prepare for what it described as a potential “war of attrition that may be long-term, exceeding the estimates of the US administration.”
Kataib Hezbollah has said that the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during Israeli strikes at the onset of the war had made undermining the security of US assets and expelling them from the region a top priority for Iran-aligned Iraqi armed groups.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment