Iraq summons US envoy after airstrikes kill 22 terrorists of Iran-backed militia in 2 days

Iraq on Wednesday condemned U.S. airstrikes that killed more than 20 members of Iran-affiliated militias that are integrated into its military in the past two days, as the tensions between the U.S. and Iran threaten to spill further into Iraqi territory.

The targeted operatives belong to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of militias, most of which are Shiite and whose members have openly pledged allegiance to Iran's supreme leader. Despite this, the PMF was integrated into the Iraqi military system.

Since the start of the Oct. 7 war, several PMF militias have attacked Israel, as well as U.S. assets in the region, under the new umbrella group, “Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI),” which is mainly a Telegram platform used to announce strikes by PMF-affiliated militias while avoiding blowback on the Iraqi government.

7 Iraqi Army soldiers were killed and 13 wounded after a U.S. airstrike hit the clinic and engineering department at the Habbaniyah base in Anbar.

The base, which is shared by the Iraqi Army and PMF/Hashd al-Shaabi, was struck in two consecutive U.S. attacks on March 24–25.… pic.twitter.com/FF9sFWHdst

— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 25, 2026

Since the United States and Israel began striking Iran earlier this month, the IRI has claimed responsibility for numerous drone and missile attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, as well as on bases with U.S., NATO, and Kurdish troops, while the U.S. has stepped up its airstrikes against the PMF.

On Tuesday, the deadliest U.S. strike so far killed 15 operatives, including a commander, in a military base in Habbaniyah, in western Iraq’s Anbar province.

An airstrike against Iranian-backed militias in Anbar, Iraqpic.twitter.com/ng5MSww0Cz

— Guy Elster גיא אלסטר (@guyelster) March 25, 2026

The Iraqi government expressed outrage, announcing it had given the PMF a “right to respond,” effectively endorsing its future strikes against U.S. assets.

On Wednesday, another strike on the same base, which is shared by PMF and regular troops, killed seven more terrorists and wounded 13, the Iraqi Defense Ministry stated.

Remarkable footage of an American CRAM downing an incoming Iranian attack drone at close range over Baghdad this week pic.twitter.com/FoAFey6MpV

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 20, 2026

It called the “treacherous aggression” against a military healthcare clinic “a heinous crime” that violated “all international laws and norms.”

The government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also vowed to summon the U.S. charge d’affaires and file formal complaints with the UN Security Council and other international bodies, warning that such incidents could undermine U.S.-Iraq relations.

“We affirm that the government and the armed forces possess the right to respond by all available means in accordance with what the United Nations Charter stipulates,” the Iraqi government stated, “and that they will not remain silent in the face of the sanctity of the blood of our heroic martyrs,” adding that the strike “harms the relationship that binds the peoples of Iraq and the United States of America.”

An Iranian-backed militia carried out an FPV drone strike on Camp Victory in Iraq, hitting multiple targets, including a parked UH-60 Black Hawk.@Osinttechnical pic.twitter.com/CwWcNF2nHF

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 25, 2026

Prime Minister al-Sudani said the U.S. chargé d’affaires would receive “an official protest note with a strongly worded tone that includes our firm and steadfast position in preserving Iraqi sovereignty, and condemns the irresponsible actions that have amounted to this heinous crime.”

Iraq will also reportedly summon the Iranian ambassador over recent strikes on Iraqi Kurdish security forces. Authorities in Iraq’s Kurdish region on Tuesday said the Iranian regime had launched two ballistic missile attacks on Kurdish forces, killing six people and wounding 30 others.

Last week, a U.S. strike killed Abu Ali al-Askari, the security chief and spokesman of Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful Iranian proxy groups in the PMF.

The announcement came in a statement attributed to Kataib Hezbollah's leader, Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, who, according to several reports, was himself a target in a recent airstrike.

NATO troops from various countries have been attacked by Iranian proxy militias in Iraq. On Monday, a British Special Forces base in Erbil, Kurdish Iraq, repelled 14 Iranian suicide drones in its largest attack on UK troops to date.

The base has so far been targeted with at least 50 drones, causing Italy to pull its troops from there. Earlier in March, a French soldier was killed in an Iranian attack.