Sputnik
Israel began a vicious circle of escalation with Iran on April 1 by attacking the Islamic Republic’s Embassy compound in Damascus. Iran responded with an unprecedented drone and missile strike targeting Israel, which were followed by a “limited” drone and missile attack against targets near the Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday.
Israel and Iraqi militias traded strikes Saturday amid sky-high regional tensions.
The Iraqi Islamic Resistance militia coalition announced Saturday that it attacked a “vital” Israeli facility in the strategic port of Eliat along the Red Sea. The strike, which was said to have involved drones, was carried out in part in response to an Israeli attack on a military base south of Baghdad housing forces of the Popular Mobilization Forces – an Iraqi government-allied militia coalition formed in 2014 to fight IS.*
The Israeli military has not officially confirmed targeting the PMF base. However, Iraqi sources told the Jerusalem Post Saturday that the suspected Israeli overnight attack killed one person and injured six others.
United States Central Command – which is responsible for dozens of military bases scattered across Iraq, Syria and other regional countries, denied any involvement in the Kalso attack, assuring in a statement that it “has not conducted air strikes in Iraq [Friday].”
“The explosion hit equipment, weapons and vehicles,” an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told AFP.
On Friday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq reported a separate operation targeting the Ovda Air Base in southern Israel in the Negev desert using drones.
The Iraqi Resistance has taken responsibility for dozens of strikes inside Israel and against American bases in Iraq and Syria in recent months after forming in October 2023 to target US and Israeli bases in response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Elements of the PMF have been threatening to force US forces out of Iraq and Syria since the January 2020 assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and PMF deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis – two major regional anti-terror leaders.
Regional tensions hit an unprecedented new high earlier this month in the wake of Israel’s strike on the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus on April 1, and the Iranian counterstrike targeting Israeli military and intelligence facilities last weekend.
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