BAGHDAD: Air strikes killed at least 11 Iran-backed fighters in Iraq on Thursday near the Iraqi-Syrian border and in the capital Baghdad, senior security and armed faction officials said.

Iraqi authorities denounced the “blatant attacks” on bases that belong to the Hashed al-Shaabi, a former paramilitary group now integrated into the regular army, which also encompasses brigades from Iran-backed armed groups.

Nine fighters were killed and another 10 wounded in strikes that targeted a base housing the US-blacklisted Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, two security officials said.

“The base was destroyed, and the rescue teams who arrived at the site were also targeted,” one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Italy vacates base in Kurdistan after attack

The base belongs to the Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), whose positions have been repeatedly targeted in attacks blamed on the United States and Israel since the start of the war.

The PMF confirmed that nine of its members were killed in Thursday’s attack.

It accused the US of striking its positions, and said that these sites “had no role in targeting US bases in Iraq or elsewhere”.

The PMF added that “all fighters killed were carrying out their official duties, and some were stationed near the borders”. It added that the group was an “essential part of Iraq’s security apparatus”.

Baghdad strike

In a separate attack, at least two Iran-backed fighters from a different group were killed in a strike on a base in Baghdad’s suburbs, according to officials in the powerful Hezbollah Brigades, allied with Tehran. The bombing targeted a site shared by police and PMF forces, a government security source said.

It marks the first such attack so close to the Iraqi capital. Iraq has long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, with the country’s successive governments struggling to balance relations between the two rivals.

It was immediately dragged into the Middle East war triggered when the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of several Iran-backed groups, has been claiming daily attacks against US bases in Iraq.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Moha­mmed Shia al-Sudani denounced what he called “blatant attacks” on the PMF, whose members were “performing their sacred duty within the missions of our security forces”.

“This systematic and repeated aggression, and the targeting of sites and headquarters without distinction, is not merely a military violation. It represents a desperate attempt to create confusion” and weaken Iraq’s security.

Kurdistan attack

Italy is temporarily withdrawing all personnel from a military base in Iraqi Kurdistan which came under a drone attack, completing a retreat that was already underway, ministers said on Thursday.

“A retreat was already planned” before Wednesday’s attack, which caused no injuries, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told Italian news programme TG1. He stressed it was “only a temporary retreat”.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2026