Iraq’s joint army command says one individual was killed and eight have been injured in an explosion early Saturday at a base utilized by an Iranian-backed armed group, Harakat al Nujaba, in Iraq’s Babylon Province.
In a rigorously worded assertion, Iraq’s army didn’t attribute the explosion to an air assault with a missile or a drone. “Air Protection Command confirmed that there was no drone or jet fighter within the airspace of Babylon Province earlier than and throughout the explosion,” the assertion mentioned.
Privately, nonetheless, army officers say it seems that not less than one projectile had hit contained in the Kalsu base’s perimeter. A video taken shortly after the occasion and posted on social media confirmed broken buildings and a big rubble-filled crater. A second video confirmed a number of components of the bottom on fireplace.
In accordance with Iraq’s joint command, the bottom is utilized by a number of components of the Iraqi safety forces together with the Iraqi military and police in addition to the Fashionable Mobilization Forces, or P.M.F., an umbrella group.
The P.M.F. contains some brigades which might be backed by Iran. The one stationed at this base, Harakat al Nujaba, has participated in assaults on U.S. installations in Iraq and Syria. Extra not too long ago it has joined with different Iranian-backed forces in Syria and Lebanon to assault Israeli territory.
There was no speedy declare of accountability for the strike.
The U.S. army, which has carried out strikes on Iranian-backed armed teams in Iraq prior to now, mentioned in a press release launched shortly after the assault that it had not participated in strikes on places in Iraq. The Israeli army declined to remark.
The explosion got here a day after Israel attacked a army air base close to the town of Isfahan in central Iran, in line with two Israeli and three Iranian officers who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate the matter publicly. That assault, on Friday, seemed to be Israel’s first army response to Iran’s huge drone and missile assault on Israeli soil almost per week in the past.
Falih Hassan contributed from Baghdad.
