CAIRO, March 17. /TASS/. Baghdad has lodged complaints with the United Nations and the Security Council over recent US airstrikes against Iraq, including those targeting the Karbala airport under construction, Iraqi Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Al-Sahaf said, according to Baghdad al-Youm news portal.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent two similar statements to the UN and the Security Council complaining about US bombings against the Iraqi forces," the diplomat said.
"We reiterated there that the US forces’ presence on Iraqi soil is aimed at providing assistance such as military training, consulting and armaments to fight against terrorists of the Islamic State [outlawed in Russia], calling on the Security Council to prevent such illegal steps by the US, which is fully responsible for casualties and destroyed infrastructure," the spokesman stressed.
According to Al-Sahaf, Washington, which claims that these strikes were driven by self-defense, is trying to avoid international responsibility. He emphasized that any combat operations or movement of US forces without the government’s consent are "provocation, <...> a hostile act and a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and of the terms of their presence in the country."
On March 11, two US servicemen and one British military doctor were killed and 14 others were wounded in a missile strike against the Iraqi military base of Al Taji, to the north of Baghdad, where US and UK troops had been quartered. The Trump administration blamed Kata'ib Hezbollah Shia group and Iran’s authorities for the attack. The next day, the US conducted airstrikes on five Kata'ib Hezbollah warehouses in Iraq, calling the attack a defensive move.
The Iraqi military command condemned the US airstrikes, calling them a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of "the principles of partnership between the Iraqi security forces and the parties that plotted and carried out this treacherous attack." According to its data, five Iraqi servicemen and one civilian were killed in these airstrikes. Later the US Army's Central Command chief, General Kenneth McKenzie, admitted that the airstrikes on the group’s facilities had led to casualties among civilians.