U.S. Airstrikes Kill Iraqi Soldiers and Police, Iraqi Officials Say

BAGHDAD — Iraqi military officials strongly condemned the U.S. military Friday for airstrikes launched overnight that they said killed three Iraqi soldiers, two police officers and a civilian worker, and damaged an unfinished civilian airport.

American officials said Friday that the strikes had hit five sites where rockets and other weapons were stored by an Iranian-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah. But according to multiple Iraqi military officials, who until now had been largely supportive of the U.S. role in Iraq, the bombings killed members of the Iraqi military and police.

American officials said Kataib Hezbollah fighters were also killed in the airstrikes, but they could not yet say how many.

The strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack Wednesday that killed two Americans and a British soldier and wounded 14 others at Camp Taji, an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad, American officials said.

In a statement Friday, the Iraqi Joint Command described the U.S. airstrikes as “an aggression” that “targeted Iraqi military institutions violating the principal of partnership” between the Iraqi security forces and the Americans.

This attack “cost the lives of Iraqi fighters while they were doing their military duty,” the statement said.

At a news conference at the Pentagon on Friday, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, head of the military’s Central Command, said the U.S. strikes were in self-defense to destroy rockets and other weapons that he said had been supplied by Iran and that could be used against American and allied troops in Iraq.

He said one of the five sites attacked was a weapons storage site at an airfield in Karbala, south of Baghdad, which had been destroyed.

The Iraqi military statement said the airport that was hit was “totally civilian” and all workers there were civilians.

In Karbala, officials involved in the airport’s construction said that an airport worker was killed and several others were wounded.

The man who was killed, Karrar Sabbar, was 23 years old and left behind a wife and two children. He worked as a guard, sleeping in one of the airport’s halls or one of the administrative buildings.

Witnesses including a New York Times reporter noted that while the damage from the strikes was clear, nothing appeared to have been burned, not even the papers that were in one of the administrative office areas that were hit.

If the facility had been used for ammunition storage, it would have been likely to have caused a fire.

McKenzie said he did not yet have details on the overall number of casualties from strikes at the five locations, mostly south and southeast of Baghdad.

He said that American officials had consulted with their Iraqi counterparts after the fatal rocket attack Wednesday and that they knew a U.S. response was coming.

He and other American military officials were dismissive of the Iraqi complaints, given that Iraqi soldiers and police officers often share bases with Iranian-backed militias like Kataib Hezbollah.

“I don’t know whether the Iraqis are happy or unhappy,” McKenzie said. “These locations that we struck are clear locations of terrorist bases. If Iraqi military forces were there, I would say it’s probably not a good idea to position yourself with Kataib Hezbollah in the wake of a strike that killed Americans and coalition members.”

A military official said the United States was not expecting to strike any Iraqi soldiers or police officers at the weapons storage sites, but the results of the strike were still being assessed. The Iraqi report of casualties will be investigated, the official said.

McKenzie said that the threat from Iran and its proxies remained “very high,” adding that tensions “have actually not gone down” since the United States killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian commander, in January.

And while there is no clear evidence yet that Iran specifically directed Wednesday’s deadly rocket attack, Kataib Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds Force coordinate closely, the U.S. official said. McKenzie said the United States was poised to strike additional militia weapons storage sites and other targets should attacks against American forces continue.

He blamed Kataib Hezbollah for about a dozen rocket attacks against American troops based in Iraq in the past six months, with Wednesday’s volley of more than a dozen 107 mm rockets being one of the largest.

To increase U.S. firepower and deterrent strength, McKenzie said, two American aircraft carriers — the Eisenhower and the Truman — will remain in the Middle East region for the foreseeable future. Patriot anti-missile batteries and other weapons are also flowing into Iraq in the coming weeks, he said.

Separately, the Pentagon identified the two Americans killed in Wednesday’s rocket attack as Army Spc. Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias, 27, of Hanford, California; and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts, 28, of Owasso, Oklahoma.

Kataib Hezbollah, which denied carrying out the rocket attack Wednesday but praised it, had no comment Friday on the U.S. retaliation.

The Iraqi Joint Command warned that the latest U.S. attacks not only meant that Iraqi soldiers and police officers had lost their lives but also risked undermining the relationship between the Iraqi military and the Americans, which is primarily focused on the fight against the Islamic State.

It could also worsen the overall security situation by encouraging retaliation against the United States in revenge for the deaths of Iraqi service members and put the Iraqis in a difficult situation. Kataib Hezbollah has called on allied militias to resume “jihadi operations” against the coalition forces and those Iraqis who assist them.

Of potentially greater concern to the Americans would be if the strikes reignited efforts to force the Americans and other coalition troops to leave Iraq. Each time there are tensions, perceived insults or civilian casualties caused by the Americans, it quickly becomes fodder for anti-American political forces in Iraq, who have the power to oust the Americans if they want to.

The attack on Iraqi forces “presents no solution to control the situation” but will “lead to escalation and deterioration of the security situation in the Iraq and expose all to more risks and threats,” the Iraqi military statement said. “It is an act against the Iraqi state and an aggression on its sovereignty which strengthen the unlawful tendencies.”

According to the Iraqis, the airstrikes killed three soldiers from Iraq’s Commando Division 19 at a base near Karbala and wounded four other soldiers. Also killed were two members of an emergency police brigade in Babil province.

Five members of the Popular Mobilization militias were wounded as well, according to the Iraqi Joint Command. It was unclear if the Popular Mobilization forces in Babil province were Kataib Hezbollah members and, if so, they might have been among those the Americans intended to target.