ISTANBUL

Iraq on Wednesday called the US targeting of locations for the pro-government Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) as an "infringement on Iraqi sovereignty."

Attacking the Hashd al-Shaabi headquarters in Al-Qaim and Jurf Al-Sakhr "is an assault and a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty" and only escalates tensions, official news agency INA quoted National Security Adviser Qassim Al-Araji as saying.

"Instead of bombing and targeting the headquarters of an Iraqi national institution, the American side should move to stop the escalation in Gaza," he added.

On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US carried out strikes against three facilities used by the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq amid attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria.

“These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias,” he said in a statement.

The retaliatory strikes came days after multiple missiles targeted Iraq's Ain al-Asad military base on Saturday, which houses US troops.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of militias which has accepted responsibility for dozens of attacks recently on US and coalition forces in Iraq.

Tensions have escalated in the Middle East when Israel launched a devastating onslaught against Gaza in retaliation to the Palestinian Hamas group's cross-border incursion in Israel on Oct. 7, with US bases in Iraq and Syria coming under attack by Iran-backed groups while attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on commercial ships in the Red Sea continue.

* Writing by Ahmed Asmar