The government of Iraq has issued significant criticism against the United States following what the Pentagon has called overnight retaliatory strikes against three facilities in Iraq that have been linked to Iran-backed militias in response to an attack of multiple ballistic missiles and rockets on US forces at an Iraqi airbase over the weekend. United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the attacks, which targeted Kata’ib Hezbollah and several other groups linked to Iran were “necessary and proportionate,” and that the United States is not seeking to escalate conflict in the region.
Despite the claimed proportionality of the strikes, the fact remains that some of the paramilitaries that were targeted by the United States have been integrated into the armed forces of Iraq, which has prompted a spokesperson of the Prime Minister of Iraq to call the actions an aggressive act that “…undermines years of cooperation, blatantly violates Iraq’s sovereignty and contributes to a reckless escalation…at a time when the region is already grappling with the danger of expanding conflict.”
According to public information, US troops have been attacked roughly 150 times by Iran-backed militants across Iraq and Syria since the conflict between Israel and Gaza escalated into war. While the United States has continued to warn against an escalation of violence in the region, which has the potential to break out into a major regional war, the fact remains that the Biden administration has consistently responded to violence against US forces and civilian shipping in the region with targeted bombings across not only Iraq but Syria and Yemen, as well as continued military support of Israel in what a number of countries around the world have started calling a genocide. The Houthis, one of the main groups linked to Iran that have been targeted by the United States for their part in attacks on civilian shipping, have yet to slow down the number of violent acts they have been taking.
As things stand, it is hard to say what the odds of a regional war breaking out are, but given what appears to be escalating rounds of strikes by both the United States and its allies, as well as the various militant groups aligned with Iran, the chances might well be going up. After all, rather than being cowed by the recent strikes by the US military, the Houthis have promised that the attacks will not go unanswered.