A militia group linked to the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) has claimed responsibility for an attack on a US convoy in the city of Basra in southern Iraq, as resistance to Washington’s continued military presence intensifies.
Saraya Awlia al-Dam said that it launched Sunday’s attack at a crossing that is under the control of foreign security companies in one of three incidents targeting US forces across Iraq.
Ashab al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave) said it carried out an attack in al-Diwaniya, central Iraq, while another convoy came under fire in Babylon. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the latter incident.
Attacks on US forces in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria have escalated since President Joe Biden ordered the drone strikes that killed four PMF soldiers last month.
Resistance forces vowed revenge for the deaths, and Abu Alaa al-Walae, the leader of the Iranian-backed Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, describing the current situation as “an open war” last week.
An explosive-laden drone struck Erbil International Airport, which hosts US troops, last week, just 24 hours after a similar airborne attack was repelled close to the US embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
UN spokeswoman Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert described the attacks as “an affront to the rule of law.”
But opponents of the US presence have vowed to continue the resistance until all of its troops leave Iraq and Syria.
Last year the Iraqi parliament voted unanimously in favour of a motion calling for the withdrawal of US forces following the assassination of Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.
Source » morning star online