'Clear hostile act': Baghdad condemns action after US launches strikes on Iraq over drone attack

The Iraqi government has denounced the recent airstrikes conducted by the United States military on its territory, labelling them as “hostile acts.” The Pentagon said that the strikes targeted sites utilized by pro-Iran forces to pose a threat to US forces. According to the government in Baghdad, the US airstrikes resulted in the death of one member of the Iraqi security forces and left 18 individuals injured, including civilians. Iraq characterized these actions as an “unacceptable attack on Iraqi sovereignty” that would have a detrimental impact on bilateral relations. The United States carried out these retaliatory airstrikes on Monday in response to a one-way drone attack earlier in the day by Iran-aligned militants. The earlier attack had left one US service member in critical condition and wounded two others. The government condemned the US strikes as “an unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” while stressing that attacks by armed groups against military bases hosting U.S-led coalition advisers are hostile acts and violate Iraqi sovereignty, a government statement said. Two Iraqi security sources said overnight U.S. airstrikes targeted the headquarters for the Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah in the Iraqi city of Hilla south of Baghdad. One fighter from Kataib Hezbollah was killed in the strikes and 16 were wounded, said two security sources on condition of anonymity. The United States has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq on a mission it says aims to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swaths of both countries before being defeated. With inputs from Reuters.