BAGHDAD (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th January, 2020) Iraq's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned Iran's missile strikes at US bases on the Iraqi territory and said it would summon the Iranian ambassador to lodge a formal protest.
Earlier in the day, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) started a revenge operation in response to Washington's killing of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in Iraq. According to the Iraqi military, about 22 missiles struck the country, with 17 of them hitting the US Ain Al Asad airbase and five attacked the Iraqi city of Erbil, targeting the US-led coalition headquarters. According to Iranian media reports, 80 US servicemen were killed and around 200 others were injured, while the United States reported no casualties at all.
"We also stress that Iraq is an independent country, and that its internal security is a priority of great concern, we will not allow it to be a battlefield, a passage to carry out attacks, or to use its ground to harm neighboring countries, and the Foreign Ministry will summon the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to inform him of the above," the ministry said in a statement.
It also called on all parties to show restraint and work toward finding a way out of the current crisis.
Prominent Iraqi politicians, such as President Barham Salih and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Halboosi, have already criticized the current attempts to fight proxy wars on Iraq's territory.
