An Iraqi official who is a member of the Ministerial Council for National Security said Wednesday that the Iraqi government’s decision to authorize all military units to respond to attacks against them means those forces will be granted broader powers to deal with any assault targeting their bases.
On Tuesday, the Ministerial Council for National Security announced in a statement that all security forces, including the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), were authorized to “act under the principle of the right to respond and self-defense” against any attacks targeting their positions, whether carried out by warplanes or drones. The decision followed an attack on a PMF headquarters in Anbar province that killed at least 15 fighters, including the PMF operations commander in the province.
In a brief phone call with Alhurra, the official said, “This authorization means Iraqi military units, including the PMF, will not need permission from central command to respond to any attack. The decision was necessary, and Iraq must protect itself.”
He added that “the decision to respond will be left to the discretion of the units, and they must respond to any attack they face.”
According to the same source, military units had previously been required to return to the Joint Operations Command, which is linked to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, before initiating any movement, attack, or response.
Regarding the circumstances surrounding the decision, a source close to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told Alhurra that Sudani “was subjected to internal pressure to issue this directive and did not want to enter into a confrontation with the United States, but the majority voice within the council supported the directive that was issued.” The source added that “Sudani issued the directive reluctantly.”
An Iraqi government spokesperson did not respond to Alhurra’s request for comment on this information.
U.S. Central Command did not respond to a request from Alhurra on whether U.S. forces had targeted the PMF headquarters in Anbar, saying only, “We have nothing to provide on this matter.”
Regarding statements by Iraq’s National Security Council and the U.S. position on them, a U.S. defense official told Alhurra, “We refer you to Iraqi officials on that.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the Iraqi prime minister’s office said he had directed the Foreign Ministry to summon the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad following attacks targeting “military sectors.”
Airstrikes targeting Iraqi military positions and PMF sites have continued. On Wednesday, seven soldiers were killed and 13 others wounded in an airstrike followed by machine-gun fire from an aircraft that targeted an Iraqi army base in Habbaniyah in western Iraq, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
On Tuesday, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, for the first time, accused the United States and Israel of being responsible for targeting the PMF in Anbar.
The PMF includes a number of paramilitary factions, most of them Shiite, which have been formally integrated into Iraq’s security forces and include several groups loyal to Iran.
Since the outbreak of war involving the United States, Israel, and Iran on February 28, Iraq has witnessed reciprocal attacks carried out by armed factions against U.S. targets and interests, Iraqi military bases, as well as energy facilities and civilian airports in Baghdad, Basra, and Erbil.
In turn, facilities belonging to those factions have been subjected to air strikes of unknown origin, with no party claiming responsibility for the bombardments. However, a defense official told Alhurra on March 9 that U.S. forces were conducting strikes against Iran-backed faction positions in Iraq.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
Ghassan Taqi
A journalist specializing in Iraqi affairs, he has worked with the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) since 2015. He previously spent several years with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as well as various Iraqi and Arab media outlets.
