Iraq's Prime Minister Al-Sudani
Sudani says Iraq has right to respond ‘by all available means’ following deadly airstrikes
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said Wednesday that Iraq “has the right to respond by all available means” under the United Nations Charter following an airstrike on the Habbaniyah military base, and directed the Foreign Ministry to summon the U.S. chargé d’affaires and deliver a formal protest note — the clearest attribution yet by the Iraqi government of the strikes to the United States.
“The government and armed forces will not stand silent before the sanctity of the blood of our heroic martyrs,” Sudani said, describing the strike as “a fully constituted crime” that “violates international law in all its definitions and frameworks within relations between states” and “harms the relationship that brings together the peoples of Iraq and the United States of America.”
He warned that such actions “will only lead to further difficulties and obstacles to efforts for sustainable stability in the region,” and said the government would submit “a documented complaint supported by evidence and details to the United Nations Security Council.”
The statement follows a strike at around 9:00 a.m. Wednesday on the Habbaniyah military clinic and works division, killing seven Iraqi military personnel and wounding 13 others, which the Defense Ministry described as “a flagrant and serious violation of all international laws and norms that prohibit targeting medical facilities.” The strike came a day after a separate attack on the same base killed 15 PMF members including Anbar operations commander Saad Daway al-Baiji, and a separate earlier strike Wednesday hit the PMF intelligence section at the same site.
The decision to formally summon the U.S. chargé d’affaires and name Washington in a UN Security Council complaint marks a significant shift in Baghdad’s public posture. Previous statements condemned the strikes without direct attribution, while the PMF and allied factions consistently blamed the United States and Israel. Neither country has claimed responsibility for any of the strikes on PMF positions in Iraq.