ISTANBUL 

The Iraqi parliament on Wednesday decried US airstrikes on security headquarters in the cities of Babil and Anbar. 

''The continued US aggression is a blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and disrespect of international agreements by Washington,'' the assembly said in a statement.

It called on the Iraqi government ''to expedite the implementation of a parliamentary decision to completely withdraw foreign forces from Iraq as their presence threatens the security, stability, and the safety of the Iraqi people.''

The Iraqi government earlier called the US airstrikes an "infringement on Iraqi sovereignty."

On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they 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 US 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, which houses US troops.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of militias that 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 the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas 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 Mohammad Sio