Over the past year-and-a-half, Iraq's pro-government paramilitary forces have accused Israel of targeting them in air raids on multiple occasions. Tel Aviv has accused ‘Iranian-backed' militias of using Iraq to ship weapons to Syria, but has declined to comment on whether or not it has carried out any operations inside Iraqi territory.
A Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) militia unit was bombed by unidentified aircraft west of the town of Akashat, Iraq near the Iraqi-Syrian border, Arab media have reported, citing a security source in Iraq's western Anbar Governorate.
In a related development, US military spokesman Wayne Marotto announced Sunday that US planes had conducted operations to “strike at the heart of Daesh [ISIS*],” in neighbouring Syria, where they reportedly destroyed “terrorist training camps in the remote Badiyah Desert.”
The spokesman did not clarify where exactly US strikes took place. The Badiyah Desert is spread over about 500,000 square kilometers of the Middle East, covering southeast Syria, most of Jordan, part of western Iraq and northern Saudi Arabia.
Unidentified aircraft and drones have repeatedly struck Iraqi militia positions over the past year-and-a-half or so, with militia leaders and lawmakers in Baghdad accusing Israel of culpability, and the US of acting as a co-conspirator due to its control of Iraqi airspace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
