Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said its command post at Kalso military base, about 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, was hit by a huge explosion late on Friday, and two security sources said it resulted from an air strike.
It was not clear who was responsible for the purported attack, which came a day after a suspected Israeli strike in Iran, but the militia officials blamed U.S. forces.
A U.S. official told Reuters there had been no U.S. military activity in Iraq, while and Israeli official told CNN the country was not involved.
One PMF fighter was killed and six were wounded, two sources at a hospital in the nearby city of Hilla said.
“The blast has caused material damage and injuries,” PMF said in a statement, adding that a team was investigating.
The PMF is a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed armed groups that joined in the fight against ISIS after it seized large sections of Iraq in 2014.
In 2016, the Iraqi government designated the PMF as an “independent military formation” within the Iraqi armed forces.
Factions within the PMF took part in months of rocket and drone attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza, but halted attacks since early February.
The blasts near near the Iranian city of Isfahan earlier Friday happened days after Iran struck Israel with a barrage of drones and missiles.
Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from Iran’s air defences hitting three drones over the city. Notably, they referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators,” rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.
Israel said nothing about the incident.
It had said for days it was planning to retaliate against Iran for strikes on April 13, the first-ever direct attack on Israel by Iran in decades of shadow war waged by proxies, which has escalated throughout the Middle East through six months of battle in Gaza.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Friday that Iran will respond at an immediate and “maximum level” if Israel acts against its interests.
“If Israel wants to do another adventurism and acts against the interests of Iran, our next response will be immediate and will be at the maximum level,” Amir-Abdollahian said, speaking through a translator, in an interview with NBC News.
In the past three weeks, Israel and Iran’s shadow war has made a significant shift to a more direct confrontation. Andrew Chang explains the escalation in the recent string of attacks and explores fears of a wider war.