Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has reiterated his government’s commitment to protecting diplomatic missions while warning the US not to respond unilaterally to an unclaimed rocket attack without Iraq’s approval.
While stressing on his government’s commitment to protecting diplomatic missions in Iraq, personnel of the international coalition mission, and their facilities, he, at the same time, warned against direct response without the approval of the Iraqi government,” a statement by the Iraqi prime minister’s media office said.
He made the remarks in a phone call from US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday night on security issues, including a rocket attack near the US embassy earlier in the day, the statement added, Xinhua news agency reported.
Welcoming the Iraqi government’s condemnation and measures to pursue the perpetrators, Austin stressed that such actions threaten the internal security of Iraq, according to the statement.
A barrage of rockets hit the vicinity of the US embassy located in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad early Friday.
Later, al-Sudani condemned the targeting of diplomatic missions as “unacceptable under any circumstances,” and gave the order to hunt down those responsible.
US military bases in Iraq and Syria have recently become the targets of attacks by armed Shiite militias as part of retaliatory measures for the US support of Israel in its ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The repeated attacks by Iraqi militias prompted the US forces to conduct airstrikes on positions of the Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces that killed more than a dozen fighters and wounded others.
–IANS