Al-Monitor - The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has condemned the US attack on Iraqi forces. The United States carried out airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that is part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that fought against the Islamic State (IS). According to Kataib Hezbollah, 25 of its members were killed and dozens were wounded. The US attack was in retaliation for a Kataib Hezbollah attack that killed a US contractor.

According to the IRGC statement, “The air attack by the terrorist American invaders against Hashid Shaabi (PMU) bases, which resulted in the martyrdom and injury of resistance fighters and the Iraqi people’s forces, is a violation of the national sovereignty of this country, and it showed once again that the United States is the prime agent of instability, chaos, tensions and fires in this region.”

The IRGC statement did not refer specifically to Kataib Hezbollah, which Iran supports and backs and whose leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, has strong ties to Iran. Rather, the statement referred only to a US attack on Hashid Shaabi forces, which were originally a volunteer force that answered the call to arms after Iraq’s leading cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called on Iraqis to fight back against the rise of IS. The PMU, along with US airpower, were instrumental in rolling back the encroachment of IS across northern Iraq.

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