Members of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi, an alliance of factions now integrated into the regular army, carry the coffin of the Hashd al-Shaabi operations commander for Al-Anbar, Saad Dawai alongside others during a mass funaral in Baghdad on March 24, 2026.
Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
Iraq said an attack Wednesday near an army medical center killed at least seven Iraqi soldiers and has complained to the U.S. over the airstrikes.
The Iraqi government said a strike hit near a base of Iran-backed paramilitaries in Iraq’s western Anbar province. The government didn’t identify the attackers but said it had summoned the top U.S. diplomat in the country to formally complain about what it considered a breach of international law.
Iraq has a strategic partnership with the U.S. while also hosting powerful Iran-backed militias that are officially part of Iraqi government forces but not entirely under government control. Some of those militias have been targeting U.S. bases in Iraq and Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
The U.S. and Israel have been launching airstrikes in retaliation for attacks by the Iran-backed Iraqi groups on U.S. positions since the war in Iran began.
Iraq’s National Security Council said Wednesday it authorized Iran-backed paramilitary forces to respond to any attacks on their positions, potentially giving the green light for attacks on U.S. forces.
The move came after airstrikes killed at least 15 fighters from Iran-backed Iraqi groups, including a senior commander, in Anbar province on Tuesday, according to the Iraqi government.
The government said attacks also targeted the residence in the city of Mosul of a senior Iraqi official who heads the forces.
On Wednesday, the Peshmerga militia forces in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq said six Iranian ballistic missiles struck one of their headquarters near Irbil on Tuesday, killing six fighters.
Iraq’s government said it summoned the Iranian ambassador to complain about the attack — the first known by Iran on the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s forces in the war.
Iran has stepped up attacks in the region, including in Irbil, the Kurdish region’s capital, where the provincial government said U.S. fighter jets were patrolling.
Regional President Nechirvan Barzani said Iran acknowledged that the attack was a “mistake” and said it was investigating.
