US launches strike on Iran-backed forces in Iraq, first since February

The U.S. launched a Tuesday strike on Iranian-backed forces in Iraq in the first attack in the country since massive strikes in February.

U.S. fighter jets struck several Iranian-aligned militia groups in the Babil province south of Baghdad, according to Iraqi officials, killing several fighters.

Yehia Rasool, a spokesperson for Iraq’s armed forces commander, said it was a “serious and uncalculated transgression” on his country and the attack could undermine the ability to combat ISIS.

“They also risk dragging Iraq and the entire region into dangerous conflicts and wars,” Rasool said in a post on the social platform X. “Therefore, we hold the [U.S.] coalition forces fully responsible for these consequences following this flagrant aggression.”

The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Iraqi armed security group that includes Iranian-backed militias, condemned the attack in a statement shared by pro-Iranian media channels but did not name the U.S. as the aggressor.

But the PMF also urged Iraq to “unite efforts to make an immediate decision for the expulsion of foreign forces from our country.”

U.S. officials told Reuters that American forces carried out an attack on Musayib in the Babil province in response to a drone launch threat from Iranian-backed militias, who also fired rockets at a U.S. base in Iraq last week.

The strike is likely to complicate ongoing dialogue between Iraq and the U.S. to negotiate the American troop presence in the country.

Some 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq to fight extremist terrorist groups like ISIS, but Iraqi officials have expressed a desire to have the forces leave the country, possibly by September, according to Reuters.

U.S. forces battled Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria from late October to February. The Iranian proxies began firing at American bases following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7.

But the last U.S. strike in February, which followed a militia drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan, appeared to have deterred Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria until now. The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have not stopped attacking ships in the Red Sea since late October.

The U.S. strike on Tuesday came on the same day that Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut. A strike on Wednesday in Iran also killed the top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, an attack that Tehran has blamed on Israel.