US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned terrorist attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq in a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani on March 9. The call took place as attacks in Iraq have continued to threaten the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and other sites in the country. At the same time, Iranian-backed militias have been hit by airstrikes that remain unclaimed.
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq began targeting US forces and other sites in the country after the commencement of the US and Israeli campaign against Iran on February 28. Iran has also conducted strikes in Iraq, part of its regional campaign of drone and missile attacks across the Middle East.
Most of the attacks in Iraq, around 200 according to local estimates, have focused on the Kurdistan Region in the country’s north. It is where most US forces in Iraq are now concentrated after troops left the Ain al Asad Air Base and other facilities in recent years. The Iranian-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella group of Shiite militias, claimed in a March 11 statement that it had carried out 291 total attacks, including 31 new operations on March 10 and 11.
On the evening of March 9-10, a drone targeted the United Arab Emirates consulate in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region. “The United Arab Emirates has strongly condemned and denounced the unprovoked terrorist drone attack that targeted the UAE Consulate General in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which resulted in material damage with no injuries reported,” the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on March 10. Saudi Arabia also condemned the drone attack.
The Kurdistan Region’s Department of Foreign Relations called on Iraq’s central government in Baghdad to protect the country’s sovereignty and prevent further attacks. A French Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson also denounced the strikes by Iran and its proxies in an interview with the Rudaw Media Network on March 10.
Despite Rubio’s condemnation of the attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed militias in his March 9 call with Sudani, Iraq’s Prime Minister’s Office did not specifically mention The Tehran regime or the Iraqi militias in its statement about the call. “During the call, the Prime Minister affirmed Iraq’s commitment to protecting diplomatic missions, embassies, and consulates represented on its territory, noting that this is among the core duties and responsibilities of the Iraqi armed forces across all branches,” the statement said.
Attacks have continued across Iraq in the past two days. According to a Reuters report, Iran took responsibility on March 10 for a missile attack on a “U.S. base in northern Iraq.” Rudaw reported several attacks in the Kurdistan Region overnight between March 10 and 11. One drone strike in the evening of March 10 in the Kurdistan Region killed one Kurdish fighter from Komala, a Kurdish Iranian opposition group.
In Baghdad, a drone struck the US Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center on the same evening. In addition, Iraq’s Ministry of Defense said that two of its air bases had been attacked. The ministry claimed that the Martyr Muhammad Alaa Air Base, located next to Baghdad International Airport and Martyr Ali Faleh Air Base, previously known as Balad Air Base, had been attacked. The ministry said the sites had been targeted by drones and missiles.
Airstrikes also hitting Iran-backed Iraqi militias
Iranian-backed militias have also been targeted in several airstrikes that remain unclaimed but may have been conducted by US forces. “Six people were killed in two separate strikes targeting positions of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, in Kirkuk’s northwestern Dibis district early Tuesday,” Rudaw reported on March 10. The PMF is a paramilitary group in Iraq that officially reports to the prime minister and includes numerous Iranian-backed militias.
Four of the fighters killed near Kirkuk were from the Kataib Imam Ali militia, according to The New Region, a website that focuses on the Middle East. Video posted on X showed a funeral for the fighters. Iraq’s Joint Operations Command Security Media Cell put out a statement mourning those who were killed.
Several unclaimed strikes have also targeted the PMF in and around Mosul. A strike on March 9 hit a PMF base near the city, while another was reported by Al Jazeera in the Nineveh Plains in the evening of March 10. A social media post said this strike targeted the PMF’s 30th Brigade near Bartella. The same brigade may have been the target of the March 9 Mosul strike and an incident on March 2. The 30th Brigade of the PMF is composed of members of the Shabak minority group and has long been stationed in the Nineveh Plains, where many Shabak live. No country has taken responsibility for the airstrikes, but a source told Alhurra that the US has been behind some airstrikes in the days after February 28.
Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDD’s Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).
Tags: Iran, Iraq, Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Kataib Imam Ali, Operation Epic Fury, PMF, Shiite militias, US-Iran
