Iraq Condemns US Air Strikes as Unacceptable and Dangerous

Fighters from the Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades militia, inspect the destruction at their headquarters in the aftermath of a US airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 30, 2019. (AP Photo)
Fighters from the Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades militia, inspect the destruction at their headquarters in the aftermath of a US airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 30, 2019. (AP Photo)
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Iraq Condemns US Air Strikes as Unacceptable and Dangerous

Fighters from the Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades militia, inspect the destruction at their headquarters in the aftermath of a US airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 30, 2019. (AP Photo)
Fighters from the Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades militia, inspect the destruction at their headquarters in the aftermath of a US airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 30, 2019. (AP Photo)

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Monday condemned US air strikes on Iranian-backed Iraqi militia bases, a move that could plunge Iraq further into the heart of a proxy conflict between Washington and Tehran.

The United States military carried out air strikes on Sunday against the Kataib Hezbollah militia in response to the killing of a US civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, officials said.

Iraqi sources said at least 25 militia fighters were killed and 55 wounded.

"The prime minister described the American attack on the Iraqi armed forces as an unacceptable vicious assault that will have dangerous consequences," his office said.

Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington since last year when President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iranian-backed forces for attacks on bases in Iraq and said any attacks by Tehran or proxies harming Americans or allies would be "answered with a decisive U.S. response."

US officials said Washington had exhibited patience amid escalating provocations from Iran and its allies, but that it was time to re-establish deterrence against aggression.

"After so many attacks it was important for the president to direct our armed forces to respond in a way that the Iranian regime will understand," US special representative for Iran Brian Hook said in a news briefing.

Iran denies involvement in attacks on US forces and has condemned the raids as "terrorism".

Protests

The strikes come at a time of protests in Iraq with thousands taking to the streets to condemn, among other things, militias such as Kataib Hezbollah and their Iranian backers.

They also demand an overhaul of a political system they see as corrupt and keeping most Iraqis in poverty. About 400 people in Basra protested against the strikes, demonstrating in support of the militias.

The air strikes brought threats of reprisal. A leading militia leader vowed revenge against US forces in Iraq.

"Our response will be very tough on the American forces in Iraq," senior commander Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, also known as Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, said on Sunday.

Mohandes is a senior commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella grouping of paramilitary organizations mostly consisting of Iranian-backed Shiite militias that was integrated into Iraq's armed forces.

He is also one of Iran's most powerful allies in Iraq and formerly headed Kataib Hezbollah, which he founded.

Iraqi security sources said US forces in northern Iraq were ramping up security.

Iraq's government will announce its official position later on Monday, Abdul Mahdi said.

The PMF bolstered Iraq's security forces during their battle to retake a third of the country from ISIS. They were later formally integrated into Iraq's official security structure.

Regional rivalries

Iraq's Fatih alliance, a political bloc representing the militias which holds the second largest number of seats in parliament, condemned the air strikes.

Their main rival, populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who leads parliament's largest group, said he was willing to work with them to end US military presence in Iraq. But he also called on them to reign in their militias so as not to provide an excuse for further US attacks.

Iraq's influential top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned the strikes but his office also denounced attacks by Iranian-backed militias on US personnel.

He urged Iraqi authorities to prevent such attacks and "ensure Iraq does not become a field for settling regional and international scores and that others do not interfere in its internal affairs."

Abdul Mahdi said his government's policy was to keep Iraq out of regional alliances and away from war.

Any escalation risks Iraq becoming the battlefield for a proxy war between the United States and Iran, which would also ensnare regional allies of both sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he congratulated Pompeo "on the important operation by the United States against Iran and its proxies in the region".

Russia, which like Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah backs Bashar Assad's regime in Syria's war, said the strikes were unacceptable and counterproductive. The Syrian regime also condemned the strikes.



Gaza's Christians 'Heartbroken' for Pope Who Phoned them Nightly

A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Gaza's Christians 'Heartbroken' for Pope Who Phoned them Nightly

A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Members of Gaza's tiny Christian community said they were "heartbroken" on Monday at the death of Pope Francis, who campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave and spoke to them on the phone every evening throughout the war.

Across the wider Middle East, Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, praised Francis' constant engagement with them as a source of solace at a time when their communities faced wars, disasters, hardship and persecution.

"We lost a saint who taught us every day how to be brave, how to keep patient and stay strong. We lost a man who fought every day in every direction to protect this small herd of his," George Antone, 44, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, told Reuters.

Francis called the church hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Antone said, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war. He would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room, Antone said.

"We are heartbroken because of the death of Pope Francis, but we know that he is leaving behind a church that cares for us and that knows us by name - every single one of us," Antone said, referring to the Christians of Gaza who number in the hundreds.

"He used to tell each one: I am with you, don't be afraid."

Francis phoned a final time on Saturday night, the pastor of the Holy Family parish, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, told the Vatican News Service.

"He said he was praying for us, he blessed us, and he thanked us for our prayers," Romanelli said.

The next day, in his last public statement on Easter, Francis appealed for peace in Gaza, telling the warring parties to "call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace".

'PEACE IN THIS LAND'

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, on the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, the superior of the Latin community, Father Stephane Milovitch, said Francis had stood for peace.

"We wish that peace will finally come very soon in this land and we wish the next pope will be able to help to have peace in Jerusalem and in all the world," he said.

In Lebanon, where a war between Israel and Hezbollah caused widespread casualties and extensive damage last year, sending millions from their homes, members of the Catholic Maronite community spoke of Francis' frequent mentions of their plight.

"He's a saint for us because he carried Lebanon and the Middle East in his heart, especially in the last period of war," said a priest in the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish, which was badly damaged during Israel's military campaign last year.

"We always felt he was very involved and he mobilized all the Catholic institutions and funds to help Lebanon throughout the crises that we went through," said Marie-Jo Dib, who works at a social foundation in Lebanon.

"He was a rebel and I really pray that the next pope will be like him," she added.

Francis made repeated trips to the Middle East, including to Iraq in 2021 where he learned that two suicide bombers had attempted to assassinate him in Mosul, a once cosmopolitan city where the ISIS terror group proclaimed a so-called caliphate from 2014-17.

He visited the ruins of four destroyed churches there and launched an appeal for peace.

In Syria, Archbishop Antiba Nicolas said he was holding mass at the historic Damascus Zaitoun church when he was handed a slip of paper with the news.

"He used to say 'dearest Syria' every time he spoke of Syria. He called on all international organisations to support Syria, the Christian presence and the church in Syria during the crisis in the past years," Nicolas said.