BAGDAD — A “bombing” hit a base military in the center of Irak which hosts troops from the army and the pro-Iranian group Hashd al Shaabi, former paramilitaries now integrated into the regular forces, indicated two security sources.
A military official and another from the Ministry of the Interior could not point to those responsible for this attack to the base of Calso, in the province of Babylon.
The US military said Friday that its forces were not behind the reported attack on a military base in Irak.
“The United States has not carried out airstrikes in Irak today,” the US military’s Middle East Command (Centcom) said on the X social network, adding that reports that US forces had carried out an attack were “not true.”
The ministerial official noted that the offensive left “one dead and eight injured,” but the Hashd al Shaabi group only confirmed in a statement that there were “injuries” and “material losses.”
This organization explained that an “explosion” had affected its premises at the base and announced the opening of a “preliminary investigation.”
For his part, the military official reported at least three injuries among the Iraqi army troops.
“Due to the bombing, there were explosions in the warehouses that house the equipment,” explained this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“A fire still affects some sectors and the search for injured people continues,” he added.
For his part, the ministry source assured that the bombing was directed at Hashd al Shaabi’s armored vehicles. “The explosion affected the material, the weapons, the vehicles,” he said.
The action, which has not been claimed, occurs in an explosive context in the region derived from the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, backed by Iran.
On Friday, attacks blamed on Israel hit the Iranian region of Isfahan, near a military base.
The previous Saturday, Tehran had launched an unprecedented attack with drones and missiles against Israel, in response to a previous bombing against its consulate in Damascus that had cost the lives of seven Iranian soldiers, including two generals.
The Hashd al Shaabi group is part of Iraq’s official security apparatus, but brings together several pro-Iranian armed factions that have carried out attacks in Iraq and Syria against US soldiers deployed within the framework of an international anti-jihadist coalition.
Source: With information from AFP
