TEHRAN — Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a senior foreign policy advisor to the Iranian parliament speaker, has condemned the U.S. attacks on Iraqi soil, suggesting that the U.S. has been supporting Daesh (ISIS) all along.

“During #ISIS crisis in #Iraq, the #US was informed abt its commanders' links w/Daesh leaders in Mosul. No convincing response was given,” Amir Abdollahian tweeted on Monday evening.

“The US is now violating Iraqi territorial integrity, independence & bombing antiterrorism stronghold,” Amir Abdollahian said.

“#WhiteHouse apparent backing for ISIS,” he added.

On Sunday, U.S. forces conducted drone strikes on a number of Kata'ib Hezbollah bases in Iraq’s western Anbar province, killing at least 25 individuals and leaving another 51 injured, according to the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

The targeted Kata'ib Hezbollah forces belonged to brigades 45 and 46 of the PMU, according to PMU official Jawad Kazim al-Rabi'awi.

Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the attacks as being unacceptable and damaging for the country, adding that the strikes were contrary to security agreements inked between Baghdad and Washington, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, also said that Adel Abdul-Mahdi, currently Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, has voiced his opposition to the attacks in a message to U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

“Bombing PMU bases is a dangerous aggravation which endangers the security of Iraq and the region,” Iraqi media sources cited Abdul-Mahdi as saying.

Iran also denounced U.S. airstrikes against Iraqi forces as a “clear example of terrorism”.

“U.S. military aggression against the Iraqi soil and positions of al-Hashd al-Shaabi forces is a clear example of terrorism and is strongly condemned,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement on Monday, using the Arabic name of the PMU.

Foreign Minister Zarif also reacted to the incident, saying the U.S. kills people thousands of miles beyond its borders in the name of self-defense.

“The recent U.S. measure in Baghdad was merely an example of such U.S. behavior in the region,” he said in Moscow on Monday, upon meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

MH/PA