US and Iraq to ‘intensify cooperation’ against attacks

BAGHDAD: The United States and Iraq will “intensify cooperation” to prevent attacks and ensure Iraqi territory is not used to launch assaults against US facilities, Washington’s embassy in Baghdad said in a statement.

Since the war began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Iraq has been increasingly drawn into a conflict it had sought to avoid at all costs.

Pro-Iran Iraqi armed groups have carried out drone and rocket attacks against multiple US targets including the embassy in Baghdad.

These pro-Iran factions, some of which are integrated into the Iraqi security forces, have themselves been regularly targeted by strikes, which the groups have blamed on the US or Israel.

The US embassy and Iraq released statements late on Friday, announcing the creation of a “High Joint Coordination Committee” to oversee efforts to tackle attacks in Iraq.

“The Iraqi and US sides decided to intensify cooperation to prevent terrorist attacks and ensure that Iraqi territory is not used as a launching point for any aggression against the Iraqi people, the Iraqi Security Forces, Iraqi strategic facilities and assets, as well as against US personnel, diplomatic missions, and the Global Coalition,” the US embassy in Baghdad said in a statement posted on X.

Relations between Washington and Baghdad have been strained as the Middle East war has gone on, with the latter particularly unhappy over a strike on a medical clinic in western Iraq that killed seven members of the security forces.

It has not officially blamed the United States, but did summon the country’s charge d’affaires over the strike. Washington has strongly denied targeting Iraqi security forces.

Earlier this week, Iraq granted the Popular Mobilisation Forces — a coalition of armed groups integrated into the regular armed forces that includes pro-Tehran factions — permission to “confront and respond” to attacks after 15 of its fighters were killed in an airstrike.

Hours after the announcement on Friday, an AFP journalist heard an explosion near the international airport in Erbil, with a witness saying they saw smoke.

The city is home to a major US consulate complex, and the airport hosts military advisors with the US-led anti-jihadist international coalition.