Iraq accuses U.S. of killing 7 soldiers in clinic strike

The Iraqi government on Wednesday accused the United States of attacking a clinic on a military base in western Anbar province, killing seven members of the Iraqi military and injuring 13. The incident could strain relations between the two nations amid the war in neighboring Iran.

The airstrike constituted “heinous aggression,” to which Iraq reserved “the right to respond by all available means,” said Sabah al-Numan, a spokesman for the commander of Iraq’s armed forces. It “undermines the relationship between the peoples of Iraq and the United States of America,” he added.

The U.S. denied targeting a clinic but did not provide details. “We’re aware of the reports. U.S. forces did not target a medical clinic in Iraq,” Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for Central Command, which oversees U.S. operations in the region, said Wednesday.

The incident may further complicate the dynamic between Washington and Baghdad. The U.S. military operates from installations within Iraq, including a strategic air base located northwest of where the strikes occurred. The Iraqi government has for years publicly said that it wanted U.S. forces to withdraw from the country, though it has relied on American troops in a shared fight against Islamic State militants in the region.

The Iraqi government leveled its accusation as U.S. military officials continue to investigate a deadly strike last month on an elementary school in southern Iran. The Pentagon has not explicitly acknowledged U.S. forces were at fault in that attack — which left at least 175 dead, mostly children, according to Iranian officials — though The Washington Post and others have reported on a body of evidence suggesting that is the case.

In two videos of the aftermath of the attack shared on social media and verified by The Post, a crowd of heavily armed men climb over crushed concrete alongside emergency workers and police. The area blanketed with debris is labeled a medical clinic on Open Street Maps, a community-sourced geographic database. Smoke billows near what appears to be a water tower as men clad in dark blue with bright yellow helmets rush back and forth to the rubble.

The Post provided Central Command with the location of one of the verified videos showing damage. The command is further assessing what happened, Hawkins said.

A separate video filmed less than a mile away and verified by The Post shows two planes flying over the general area of the strike. One is visible descending toward the strike site before flying north. The camera pans to the second plane, an A-10C Thunderbolt II — an aircraft used primarily by the U.S. Air Force that attacks ground targets and provides air support for ground forces. The Post found that at least nine of the aircraft were at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan just before the war with Iran began.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry has been directed to summon the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy to “deliver a strongly worded official note of protest” and to file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council, Numan said.

The strike Wednesday morning hit the Habbaniyah Military Clinic, Iraq’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement. Search-and-rescue teams were working at the scene, it said. “Targeting medical facilities is a heinous crime by all standards,” the ministry said.

A facility of the Popular Mobilization Forces — an umbrella organization for Shiite former paramilitaries, including some backed by Iran, that have been integrated into Iraq’s security forces — is situated near the army medical unit on the base, a senior Iraqi military official said Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive information. During a visit by The Post to the base in 2018, PMF and regular Iraqi military buildings could be seen close together.

Iran-aligned militant groups have carried out attacks on U.S. assets in Iraq in recent weeks in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. The U.S. has responded with attacks targeting pro-Iran groups in Iraq. Tehran’s long-standing support for regional militias, including those in Iraq, has emerged as a central issue in a U.S. proposal to end the Iran war.

The attack Wednesday occurred “despite Iraq’s sustained political and practical efforts to keep the country away from the ongoing regional conflict,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters last week that the A-10 was being used to destroy Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz but stopped short of describing its use in Iraq, saying instead that attack helicopters were targeting “Iranian-aligned militia groups” in the country.

The A-10, popularly known as the Warthog, has been a fixture of U.S. conflicts for decades, and its aggressive, low-flying use to target enemies up close has earned the affection of American personnel. But its churning 30mm cannon, capable of piercing tanks, can also send rounds astray of intended targets. The aircraft caused the most friendly fire U.S. deaths and the most civilian fatalities in Afghanistan, USA Today reported in 2015.