SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s Hashid al-Shaabi denied reports on Tuesday that an airstrike was carried out against targets on the border between Iraq and Syria.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a drone targeted a position belonging to an Iranian-backed militia near the Iraqi border.
“There is no truth to what was reported by some media about the presence of an air strike on the Iraqi-Syrian border,” the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said in a statement.
The rumors come as attacks on U.S. troops and personnel or bases where they operate have intensified in Iraq and widened to eastern Syria.
On June 27, the United States carried out air strikes against Iran-backed militias at the Syrian-Iraqi border in response to continued rocket and drone attacks.
Iraqi militia groups aligned with Iran vowed to retaliate after U.S. strikes on the Iraqi-Syrian border killed four of their members last month.
U.S. officials believe Iran is behind a ramp-up in increasingly sophisticated drone attacks and periodic rocket fire against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, where the U.S. military has been helping Baghdad combat the remnants of Islamic State.
Iran denied on Saturday U.S. accusations that Tehran supported attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
