SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A drone attack that targeted the residence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi was carried out by at least one “Iran-backed militia group”, Reuters reported on Monday.
Kadhimi escaped unharmed in what Iraqi military said an “assassination attempt” by armed drone on his residence in Baghdad.
The interior ministry said three drones were used in the attack, including two that were intercepted and downed by security forces while a third drone hit the residence.
Several members of Kadhimi’s personnel protection force stationed outside his residence in the Green Zone were wounded, it added.
Reuters cited sources close to the militias as saying that the drones and explosives used in the attack were “Iranian-made”.
Two security officials also told Reuters that the powerful-Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq groups carried it out in tandem.
One militia source said Kataib Hezbollah was “involved” but he could not confirm the role of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, according to Reuters.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which raised tension in Iraq a few weeks after a general election disputed by Iran-backed militias including Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib.
On Sunday, Kataib Hezbollah’s security official Abu Ali al-Askari dismissed suggestions that Iraqi groups were behind the attack.
“According to our confirmed information, no-one in Iraq has the desire to waste a drone on the house of a former prime minister,” Abu Ali Al-Askari, a security official from the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah, said on Telegram on Sunday.
On Sunday, Kadhimi said during a meeting of the Council of Ministers that he knew “well” who carried out the drone attack and that they would pursue those who were behind it.
An Iraqi official who spoke to The Guardian on Sunday accused the Iraqi Shia militias of carrying out the attack.
“We say the militias did this,” the official said. “We say the Iranians maybe knew. We are not more sure than that.”
Commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force Esmail Qaani arrived in Baghdad late on Sunday and held a meeting with Shia leaders in the Iraqi capital, according to Iraqi media.
Iran was among other countries including U.S., UK, France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia that condemned the drone attack.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he had instructed his national security team to offer “all appropriate assistance” to the Iraqi forces as they investigate the attack and identify the perpetrators.
Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the attack as a heinous crime against Iraq.
“We cannot accept that Iraq will be dragged into chaos and a coup against its constitutional system,” he said in a tweet.
Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose party was the biggest winner in last month’s election, called the attack a terrorist act against Iraq’s stability that aimed to “return Iraq to a state of chaos to be controlled by non-state forces”.
Images published by Iraqi news agency INA showed damage to some parts of the prime minister’s residence and a damaged SUV vehicle parked in the garage.
Remains of a small explosive-laden drone were retrieved by security forces to be investigated.
