Iraq‘s military sharply criticized the barrage of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria Friday as a violation of the country’s sovereignty, putting further strains on the relationship between Baghdad and Washington.
Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, warned that the attacks, ordered by President Biden in retaliation for a deadly militia strike on a U.S. military installation in Jordan on Sunday, could lead to “dire consequences.”
“These airstrikes constitute a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, and pose a threat that could lead Iraq and the region into dire consequences,” Mr. Rasool said in a statement reported by the Reuters news agency.
The powerful Iraqi Shiite militias, which have long and deep ties to Iran, are loosely integrated with Iraq‘s own security forces and have long been a source of contention in the U.S.-Iraqi relationship. The militias have been blamed for a string of regular drone and missile strikes targeting the U.S. military mission based in the country.
Tensions over the U.S. military presence, which the Pentagon says is needed to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State and other jihadist groups, have grown so heated that the U.S. and Iraqi governments last weekend began formal talks on whether and how long the American forces should remain in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the first round of talks last week was intended to start a dialogue to “end the coalition in Iraq.”
An estimated 2,500 American troops are based in Iraq and another 900 across the border in Syria as part of the anti-ISIS mission.