ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A top Iraqi Shiite politician on Sunday said that the United States will be held “fully responsible” for violating Iraqi airspace by using it to launch its attack on neighboring Iran, a day after Tehran said Israel used Iraqi airspace against it.
“We hold the American side fully responsible for the violation of the sovereignty of Iraqi airspace by the usurping Zionist entity’s aircraft and the blatant aggression against the Islamic republic,” Hadi al-Amiri, a prominent Shiite politician and the leader of the pro-Iran Badr Organization, said in a statement.
Amiri accused Washington of “its insistence on dominating Iraqi airspace and acting against the interests of Iraq, its people, and its sovereignty,” as well as giving Israel everything it needs to carry out attacks in the region.
On Saturday, the Iranian army said that Israel used airspace provided by the United States inside Iraq to launch its attack on Iran. Four Iranian soldiers were killed in the attack which Israel said was in response to Tehran’s attacks on Israel.
US forces, located at several bases around the country, are in Iraq at the invitation of the federal government as part of the global coalition to combat the Islamic State (ISIS). The mission is scheduled to wrap up in September 2025.
Iran has directly attacked Israel twice. The first time was in April when Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation for a deadly strike on its embassy that Tehran blamed on Israel. The second time was on October 1 in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander.
“The need has become more urgent than ever to end the American military presence in Iraq in all its forms,” Amiri stressed.
Last month, the US and Iraq announced that they had struck a deal to end the military mission of the anti-ISIS global coalition within a year. American troops will continue to maintain a military presence in Iraq until 2026 to support the coalition mission in Syria, which will end in two years.
