Explosions injure three people at pro-Iran military base, Iraqi security official says
CNN
By Aqeel Najim and Hamdi Alkhshali, CNN
(CNN) — At least three people were wounded after five explosions rocked a military base belonging to an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, a local security official told CNN Saturday.
The blasts happened at a site belonging to the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), according to Muhannad al-Anazi, a member of the Security Committee in Babylon Governorate, south of the capital Baghdad.
There was no immediate indication as to the cause.
Israeli and US officials said neither was involved in the blast, a day after a military strike on Iran which has been attributed to Israel.
The PMU, also referred to as the Popular Mobilization Forces, is a predominantly Shiite Iran-backed paramilitary force based in Iraq. Unlike other Iran-backed groups around the region, the PMU is tied to the local government, and is closely linked to Iran-aligned Shiite blocs that have dominated politics in Iraq for years.
The PMU said the blast happened “at the Kalsu military base in the Al-Mashrou district on the highway, north of the Babylon Governorate”. Investigators are currently at the site of the explosion, which also caused material losses, PMU added.
“We will provide you with the details once the preliminary investigation is completed,” it said.
The blast comes as a time of high tension in the Middle East, as Israel wages war against Hamas in Gaza, after the the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group launched a deadly incursion into southern Israel in October.
Tit-for-tat strikes this month have also brought a decades-long shadow war between Israel and Iran out in the open.
Israel carried out a military strike on Iran early Friday, a US official told CNN, in a potentially dangerous escalation. Israel has not commented and Iran has not identified the source of the attack, while no major damage was reported.
After the Iraq blast, an Israeli official told CNN that it was not involved.
Meanwhile US Central Command posted on social media: “We are aware of reports claiming that the United States conducted airstrikes in Iraq today. Those reports are not true. The United States has not conducted air strikes in Iraq today.”
In 2016, the Iraqi parliament passed a bill recognizing the PMU as a government entity operating alongside the Iraqi military. The organization is an umbrella group, with several forces operating underneath its wing – including Iraq’s powerful Kataib Hezbollah.
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