This article was originally published in Common Dreams under Creative Commons 3.0 license. Read the original article. Contact: editor@commondreams.org

By Jake Johnson

The Iraqi government on Wednesday issued a scathing statement accusing the US of bombing a medical clinic situated in a military base west of Baghdad, killing seven members of Iraq’s armed forces and wounding more than a dozen others.

Sabah Al-Numan, a spokesperson for the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, called the attack an act of “heinous aggression” and a “crime.” The US said it is “aware of the reports” of the strike on the clinic at Habbaniyah military base, but denied targeting the facility. Asked about the strike during a briefing on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that she would “have to check with the Pentagon on that.”

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The Iraqi prime minister’s office said the nation’s government and military “possess the right to respond by all available means in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,” calling the clinic attack a “violation of international law and the established norms governing relations between states” and warning that it “undermines the relationship between the peoples of Iraq and the United States of America.”

Iraq’s immediate response to the attack was to summon the US Embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad and deliver “a strongly worded official note of protest.” The prime minister’s office said it also intends to file a formal complaint with the United Nations Security Council.

“The US war in Iran is going so badly that it’s restarted the US war in Iraq,” Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy, wrote in response to the developments.

Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged during a press conference last week that American attack helicopters “have been striking against Iranian-aligned militia groups” in Iraq “to make sure that we suppress any threat in Iraq against US forces or US interests. The US is known to have roughly 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq, which American forces invaded with catastrophic consequences in 2003.

The bombing of the Iraqi clinic came as the US-Israeli war on Iran—and the massive regional conflagration sparked by the illegal assault—headed toward its fifth week with no end in sight.

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On the first day of the war, an elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab was bombed, killing around 170 people—mostly young children. Trump administration officials have publicly denied targeting civilians—and the US president initially blamed Iran for the school bombing—but preliminary findings by the US military reportedly found that American forces were responsible for the attack.

(GP)

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