U.S. Airstrikes Hit Iraq’s Iran‑Aligned PMF as Baghdad Asserts ‘Right to Respond’

The U.S. military has carried out new airstrikes in Iraq targeting the Iran‑aligned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), including a headquarters in Anbar province and a residence tied to PMF chief Falih al‑Fayadh in Mosul, as part of an ongoing campaign against militias Washington says threaten U.S. forces and interests. Fox’s reporting, citing Iraqi and regional sources, says at least 15 PMF members were killed in strikes on a Euphrates‑valley base in Anbar, with a security official telling the Times of Israel that two missiles from a fighter jet hit the site again on Wednesday after an earlier Tuesday strike. Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al‑Sudani, responded with a sharply worded statement calling the raids "unjustified" violations of sovereignty and directing Iraqi forces "to confront and respond" to air and drone attacks on PMF and other security formations "using available means, in accordance with the right to respond and self‑defense," while also ordering the Foreign Ministry to summon both the U.S. chargé d’affaires and Iran’s ambassador. The PMF, formally part of Iraq’s security apparatus and politically tied into Sudani’s government, has launched recent attacks on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, targets in the Kurdistan Region, and Israel following the Feb. 28 U.S.–Israeli strike on Iran, and has a history of lethal attacks on U.S. troops. Kurdish officials quoted in the piece warn that the militias are "doing Iran’s bidding," while an Iraqi embassy spokesman in Washington insists Baghdad does not intend to "fight the Americans" but rather target elements that attack Iraqi and coalition forces, underscoring the increasingly precarious position of a government trying to balance U.S. and Iranian pressure amid a wider regional war.