kayhan.ir

News ID: 69637
Publish Date : 23 August 2019 - 21:34
New York Times Confirms:

Zionist Regime Carries Out Attacks on Iraqi Bases

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime has carried out several attacks targeting bases of Iraqi anti-terror forces "in recent days", the New York Times reports.
Two senior American officials told the newspaper that the attacks targeted Iraqi munition storehouses, alleging that the site was being used "to transfer weapons to Syria".
The report comes amid a series of unclaimed strikes in the past month targeting bases belonging to Iraq's pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known as the Hashd al-Sha’abi.
On July 19, a drone was reported to have targeted a PMU base near the town of Amerli in northwestern Iraq.
The New York Times report on Friday cited an unnamed senior Middle Eastern intelligence official as saying that the Zionist regime was specifically behind the July 19 attack.
Earlier this week, another attack rocked a PMU position near a strategic air base north of the capital Baghdad.

‘Crushing Response’

The attack prompted second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes to announce that the group held United States fully responsible.
"We have accurate and credible information that Americans brought in four Israeli drones this year via Azerbaijan to operate within the U.S. fleet to carry out sorties aimed at Iraqi military headquarters," he said.
Following the strike, the PMU vowed to target any unidentified aircraft near its bases.
Iraqi Hezbollah Battalions in a statement held the U.S. responsible for recent attacks on its military positions in Iraq, and warned that Washington will receive a crushing response in case of more attacks.
"We consider the U.S. as solely responsible for raids on our military centers and we are aware that they are planning to launch other attacks either directly or indirectly through Zionists,” the statement said.
It noted that the U.S. has now resorted to launching direct attacks on the centers and headquarters of Hezbollah Battalions, and said that the U.S. uses some Iraqi local mercenaries to spy on the country’s military centers.
Iraqi Hezbollah Battalions warned Washington that any new attack on Iraq’s military centers will receive a rigid response, and said that the U.S. should come to know that commencing any clashes will result in a full expulsion of the U.S. from the entire region.
Meanwhile, Hashd al-Sha’abi traced and targeted on Friday a spy drone over one of its centers near Baghdad.
The Hashd al-Sha’abi in a statement on Thursday announced that the air defense system of the popular forces’ Brigade 12 has intercepted a spying drone over its center in Baghdad.
The statement said that Hashd al-Sha’abi prevented the hostile aircraft from conducting its reconnaissance mission.