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Iraq says Iran informed it of imminent missile attack on US forces
BAGHDAD, Jan 8, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Iraq’s prime minister’s office said
Wednesday it had received “an official verbal message” from Iran informing it
that a missile attack on US forces stationed on Iraqi soil was imminent.
Iran launched 22 missiles at Iraqi bases housing US and other coalition
troops early Wednesday in response to the killing of senior Revolution Guards
commander Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad last week.
In its first statement hours later, premier Adel Abdel Mahdi’s office said
it had been warned.
“We received an official verbal message from the Islamic Republic of Iran
that the Iranian response to the assassination of Qasem Soleimani had begun
or would begin shortly, and that the strike would be limited to where the US
military was located in Iraq without specifying the locations,” it said.
The prime minister’s office said it was simultaneously contacted by the
US, as the missiles slammed into the Ain al-Asad base in western Iraq and
Harir further north.
“We immediately warned Iraqi military commanders to take the necessary
precautions,” it said, adding that no Iraqi forces had been hurt in the
attack.
“Iraq rejects any violation of its sovereignty and attacks on its
territory,” the premier’s office added, without specifically condemning the
missile strikes.
It said Abdel Mahdi was in talks with domestic and foreign partners to
prevent an “open war.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier said he had spoken to Masrour
Barzani, the prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern
Iraq.
But it remained unclear if there was any contact between Pompeo or any
other top US official and Abdel Mahdi.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1735 hrs