The Iraqi Islamic Resistance Movement (IRI), an umbrella organization for Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack on Israel's Red Sea port city of Eilat on Monday.
The Israeli military said it intercepted what appeared to be a lone unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) before it could do any damage, but the incident prompted the recalcitrant Iraqi government to take action against Iran's terrorist proxies. The pressure increased.
“Iraqi's Islamic resistance group Mujahideen targeted targets in the occupied Umm al-Rashlash area of Eilat with suitable weapons,” IRI said in a statement. Said In a statement Monday, it claimed credit for the attack, which took place Sunday night.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Sunday that its aircraft “intercepted an enemy aircraft that was en route to Israeli territory from the east a short time ago.”
“The target was under Israeli Defense Forces surveillance and did not enter Israeli territory,” the statement said.
IRI too claimed responsibility about Sunday's drone attack on a U.S. military base near Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region. The Kurdish Counter-Terrorism Directorate said the drone had been “destroyed and shot down.”
On Saturday night, two suicide drones loaded with explosives attacked a base near Erbil used by the Kurdish militia Peshmerga. There were no casualties as a result of this attack.
Attacks in the Kurdistan Region have increased tensions between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central government in Baghdad. KRG spokesperson Peshawa Hauramani said: announced Regarding the suicide drone attack on a peshmerga base, the statement included a healthy dose of criticism of Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani's government.
“We hold these groups and the federal government responsible for these dastardly attacks, because these outlaw groups are armed and paid by the federal government and are They prowl under the noses of governments, transporting weapons, rockets, and drones, and carrying out terrorist attacks against government and military institutions,” it said in a statement.
Hawramani said Sudani's government was “silent and incompetent” against Shiite militias, but Baghdad officials were cutting “the lives of Kurdistan's people” to funnel money to the militias. He sarcastically pointed out that he was very “brave” for doing so.
The militias were legalized and semi-conscripted into the fight against Islamic State under the name of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). quickly grown He joined one of Iraq's largest and best-funded militias. The KRG has long accused Baghdad of not paying civil servants' salaries, but the dispute erupted engage in angry protests During September.
“The attack on the Peshmerga, as a public force and part of Iraq's federal defense system, is a dangerous and unacceptable development that threatens peace and stability in Iraq,” the KRG President's Office added in its own statement.
KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said he was “deeply alarmed” by the attack on the Erbil region.
“I condemn these outlaws and their collaborators in the strongest possible terms,” Barzani said.
“We are well aware of the problems happening here and the lawless people behind them, and we have the right to protect our people,” he insisted.
Barzani called on the central government to “treat any attack on the Kurdistan Region as an attack on all of Iraq and respond with appropriate action.”
The KRG also issued a statement saying there are no “Zionist” bases on its territory, a claim the IRI often makes when launching attacks on bases housing U.S. and allied forces. .
After weeks of fruitless pleas from the Biden administration, criticism from the KRG may have finally forced Sudani to take action. Shortly after Barzani posted his comments, Sudani ordered Iraqi security services to work with Kurdish officials to investigate the drone attack on the Peshmerga base.
President Sudani publicly condemned the attack as a violation of Iraq's “national sovereignty” and an attempt to “disturb internal security and stability,” which is the term he usually uses. reserves for limited U.S. retaliatory airstrikes against Shiite militias;
Baghdad also took umbrage at the KRG's criticisms, particularly Mr. Hawramani's impassioned comments on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Sudani's government said: “The federal government expresses surprise at the statement of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government spokesperson, which contains baseless and irresponsible accusations, mixed with misleading information and baseless lies.” Stated.
Baghdad's statement specifically rejected Mr. Hauramani's claims that the federal government is not fulfilling its financial obligations to the KRG to fund Shiite militias.
