An Iraqi military investigations committee announced on Tuesday that the attack on the Kalso base on Saturday was not carried out by jets or drones.
It said the attack in the southern Babil province was carried out by a rocket and that the base held three types of material that are used in manufacturing explosives.
One member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and eight others were wounded in the strike.
The committee said it found the fragments of five rockets 150 meters from the attack site. The size of the crater at the scene indicates that a very large explosion caused by weapons and very flammable material had taken place.
The committee noted a report from the air defense command that said it detected no fighter jets or drones in Babil before, during or after the explosion took place.
The United States often claims attacks that it carries out against pro-Iran armed factions or the PMF in Iraq, but it didn’t this time.
When the US doesn’t claim an attack, then that leaves no one but Israel responsible, Iraqi politicians told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The attack on Kalso took place hours after Israel fired two rockets at an air base in Iran’s city of Isfahan.
The Iraqi committee added that the extent of the blast indicates that the attack could not have been carried out by a rocket or several rockets that were launched from the air.
Tests on the soil and the rocket fragments proved the presence of three materials used in the manufacture of explosives and rockets. It identified the material as TNT, ammonium nitrate and dibutyl phthalate.
Truce holds
The phrasing of the report may be viewed as an attempt to calm the air between the armed factions and Americans, especially in wake of a visit concluded by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to the US last week where he met with President Joe Biden.
Trusted political sources said leading members in the pro-Iran Coordination Framework, notably former PM Nouri al-Maliki and head of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq Kais Khazali, were leaning towards maintaining the “truce” between the armed factions and the US.
In contrast, leaders of the Nujaba movement and Kataib Hezbollah were leaning towards ending the calm.
The sources said the outcomes of the military investigation reflect a desire by the government and a powerful party within the Framework to maintain the truce.
News of the explosion emerged no sooner had Sudani’s plane departed the US. Initial reports said the attack was carried out by the US, which would have been a signal that his visit was a failure, but those claims were quickly ruled out.
Hours later, reports emerged that Israel had carried out the attack and that it falls within the “rules of engagement between the Iranians and the Israelis, and also between the factions and the Israelis,” said an Iraqi politician.
Hours after the Kalso attack, five rockets were fired from Iraq’s Mosul at an American military base in Syria’s Hasakeh in what was seen as a test of force between the pro-Iran Iraqi factions and the Iraqi government.
The government described the attack as “an act carried out by outlaws.” Conflicting reports emerged from the armed factions, including Kataib Hezbollah, in claiming and distancing themselves from the attack.
The American base in Syria’s Ain al-Asad also came under attack hours later.
Who carried out the attack?
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy said the Iraqi factions were likely behind both attacks in Syria, signifying the end of the truce.
It said the attack by the Iran-backed factions was “carefully executed with no US casualties and no inferred claims of responsibility—indeed, a denial of involvement.”
“Efforts were thus made to avoid escalation that might draw Kataib Hezbollah and Iran into danger,” it added.
