Baghdad, Iraq:
US strikes within the west of Iraq in opposition to armed pro-Iran teams killed a minimum of 16 individuals, together with civilians, and wounded 23, Iraqi authorities spokesman Bassem al-Awadi stated on Saturday.
The strikes hit “areas within the Akashat and Al-Qaim areas, together with areas the place our safety forces are stationed”, Awadi stated in a press release.
The US carried out the strikes on Friday in retaliation for the killing of three US army personnel in a drone assault on a base near Jordan’s border with Syria and Iraq.
Washington blamed the unclaimed assault on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a unfastened alliance of pro-Iran fighters against US help for Israel in Gaza.
Tehran has denied any hyperlinks to the assault.
On Friday, a White Home spokesperson stated the US had “warned the Iraqi authorities earlier than the strikes”.
However Baghdad denied there had been any coordination with Washington previous to the bombings.
Awadi accused the US of “deception and distortion of info” and known as the suggestion “an unfounded declare crafted to mislead worldwide public opinion and evade obligation” for what he stated was a breach of worldwide legislation.
“This aggressive air strike will push the safety scenario in Iraq and the area to the brink of the abyss,” the spokesman stated.
Awadi condemned the usage of Iraq’s territory as a “battleground for settling scores” and repeated his authorities’s name for the withdrawal of the US-led worldwide anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq.
The coalition had “deviated from its assigned duties and granted mandate,” he stated, and was “endangering safety and stability in Iraq”.
There are roughly 2,500 US troops deployed in Iraq and about 900 in Syria as a part of the coalition shaped in 2014 to combat the Islamic State group — the 12 months the jihadist group overran round a 3rd of Iraq.
Since mid-October, there have been greater than 165 drone and rocket assaults in opposition to coalition troops in Iraq and Syria, with most being claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)