Media Wire

US admits it did not give Iraq notice of attacks despite earlier claims

Washington has admitted it did not notify the Iraqi government before its recent airstrikes in the country after a top White House official claimed Baghdad had been informed in advance.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said on Monday that Iraqi officials were only informed after the strikes on “Iranian-linked targets”.

“Iraq, like every country in the region, understood that there would be a response after the deaths of our soldiers. As for this specific response on Friday, there was not a pre-notification,” Patel told reporters.

“We informed the Iraqis immediately after the strikes occurred.”

The clarification came after White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday said that Washington had informed the Iraqi government in advance.

Kirby stated on Monday that he had responded to reporters’ questions with the “information that I had been provided at the time”.

“It was not as specific as it could have been, and I regret any confusion caused,” he added.

“That said, we had made no secret – both to Iraqi officials and in public channels – that we would respond to the attacks on our troops. And, we did, in fact, officially notify Iraq, as appropriate with standard procedure.”

US President Joe Biden on Friday ordered air raids against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, following a drone attack in Jordan that killed three US troops.

Iraq condemned the strikes, which officials said killed 16 people, including civilians, as a violation of its sovereignty that placed the security in the region on the “brink of the abyss”.

Iraqi government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi rejected the suggestion that his country had helped to coordinate the attacks, accusing Washington of making a “false claim aimed at misleading international public opinion and disavowing legal responsibility”.

Tensions between Washington and Baghdad have escalated in recent months as the Biden administration has carried out strikes inside Iraq in response to a surge in attacks on US forces since the start of the war in Gaza that it has blamed on Iran-aligned groups.

About 2,500 US troops are stationed in Iraq, a legacy of the US-led coalition’s war against the Daesh group.

Last month, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated Washington would begin talks with Baghdad on the withdrawal of US-led forces in the country while maintaining security ties between the sides.

IFP Media Wire

Reports and views published in the Media Wire section have been retrieved from other news agencies and websites, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website. The IFP may change the headlines of the reports in a bid to make them compatible with its own style of covering Iran News, and does not make any changes to the content. The source and URL of all reports and news stories are mentioned at the bottom of each article.

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