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Iraq lodges formal complaints with UN over US airstrikes 

March 18, 2020 at 9:55 am

Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Ahmed Al-sahaf speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, Iraq on 27 February 2019. [Haydar Karaalp – Anadolu Agency]

Iraq said yesterday that it has filed a formal complaint with the United Nations and the United Nations Security Council over the US’ bombings of security, military and civilian sites that left six people dead, Anadolu reported.

A spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Al-Sahhaf, said in a statement that the ministry has filed two identical complaints to the UN and the UNSC regarding the US targeting of Iraqi forces.

Al-Sahhaf added that the Foreign Ministry described the US bombing as a “hostile act and a flagrant violation of the terms of US troops presence in Iraq”.

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On Friday, the United States launched a string of airstrikes against five sites belonging to the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), the Iraqi army and police in Babil governorate as well as Karbala International Airport which is still under construction; killing three Iraqi soldiers, two policemen, and a civilian, the Iraqi army said.

However, the Pentagon said the attacks targeted Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades in retaliation for the missile attack on the Taji base near Baghdad which killed two American soldiers and a British “contractor” and wounded 12 others.