Iraq to take diplomatic, legal measures against sovereignty breach: Foreign ministry

A high-ranking Iraqi official says Baghdad will take all available diplomatic and legal actions to prevent the violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the wake of recent airstrikes in the country against the positions of pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take all necessary diplomatic and legal measures through the United Nations and the UN Security Council besides communication with brotherly and friendly countries to address any action, which violates Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry’s spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said in a post published on the official Twitter page of the ministry on Monday.

Separately, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, President Barham Salih and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi held a meeting in the capital Baghdad with senior commanders of the Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic word of Hashd al-Sha’abi, to discuss measures aimed at protection of Iraq’s security and sovereignty.

They stated that the latest assaults on Hashd al-Sha’abi positions were meant to marginalize the volunteer forces, and strip them of the role in the fight against Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

PressTV-‘Israel plans to bomb Hashd Sha’abi arms depots in Iraq’

An Iraqi security expert says the Israeli military is apparently planning to launch attacks against ammunition depots of pro-government Hashd al-Shaa’abi forces.

Moreover, Iraqi lawmaker Sana al-Moussavi, in an interview with Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Etejah television network on Monday, called on the UN Security Council and the international community to adopt a clear position against “the terrorist Zionist regime (of Israel).

She added that the presiding board of the Iraqi parliament is expected to take effective measures aimed at protection of the Popular Mobilization Units and security forces.

Also on Monday, Iraq's military said it has launched an investigation into a purported Israeli strike that killed two Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters near the town of al-Qa’im close to the country's western border with Syria.

PressTV-Hashd al-Sha’abi: Israel killed two fighters near Syria border

Iraq’s pro-government Popular Mobilization Units says Israel was behind the recent deadly drone attack that killed two near the Syrian border.

“An investigation is ongoing now to determine what happened with the strike,” the spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, told AFP.

Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of the Iraqi Health Ministry, said in a statement that at least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in a powerful explosion, which rocked a military base in southern Baghdad on August 12.

An unnamed source from Iraq’s Interior Ministry said an ammunition warehouse exploded inside a federal police military base, named Falcon, in Owerij area near the southern district of Doura.

PressTV-Don’t play with fire: Iraqi anti-terror force warns Israel

Iraq's Hashd al-Sha’abi has warned Israel against “playing with fire” after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted that Tel Aviv may attack the anti-terror volunteer fighters. 

Arabic-language al-Ahad TV television network reported on July 19 that a drone had dropped explosives onto a base belonging to the Popular Mobilization Units near the town of Amerli, located about 170 kilometers north of the capital, in the early hours of the day, killing at least one PMU fighter and injuring four others.

Video footage broadcast by Iraqi channels showed a blaze burning at the site and plumes of thick smoke billowing. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

PressTV-Blasts hit Hashd al-Sha’abi position north of Iraq capital

Several blasts have rocked a position of pro-government Hashd al-Sha’abi forces near Balad air base north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Additionally, the Iraqi al-Etejah television network reported that an American B350 reconnaissance plane had flown over the area a few days earlier.

In January, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted during a visit to Iraq that the Israeli regime could launch attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, who played a key role in the Iraqi army’s counter-terrorism battles against the Daesh terror group and helped the government to rid the country of the Takfiri outfit in late 2017.

Pompeo was reported to have made it clear to Iraqi officials at a meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi that Washington would not react to possible Israeli attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters.

Abdul-Mahdi expressed concern about the statement and warned Pompeo that such actions by Israel would have grave consequences, Russia’s RT Arabic television news network reported back then.

PressTV-Iraqi PM orders probe into attack on Hashd Sha’abi camp

The Iraqi prime minister has ordered an investigation into a drone attack on a base belonging to Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters in the northern province of Salahuddin.

Reacting to the reports, Moein al-Kazemi, a Hashd al-Sha’abi commander, said the force was ready to deliver a “strong” response to any aggression, advising the regime in Tel Aviv not to “play with fire.”

The Israeli regime has a record of attacking the forces fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Syria.

In June 2018, Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.

Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Sha’abi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the United States.

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