An airstrike on 9 March struck a base in northern Iraq belonging to the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a wing of the Iraqi armed forces enjoying support from Iran, according to officials from the group.

AFP reported that one PMU official attributed the strike to US forces, saying it hit a base near the town of Bartella near the city of Mosul in Nineveh Governorate.

The PMU was established in 2014, after Shia religious leader Ali Sistani called for volunteers to fight ISIS following the terror group’s capture of Mosul.

The group received support from famed Iranian general Qassem Suleimani and was later incorporated into the Iraqi armed forces.

There is some overlap between the PMU and Shia armed groups operating under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), including Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which receive backing from Iran.

Members of Iraq’s other religious groups have since joined the PMU, including Sunnis, Yezidis, and Christians.

No casualties were reported in the attack in Bartella, which comes amid the US-Israeli war on Iran launched on 28 February.

Since the start of the war in Iran, bases belonging to the PMU have been hit by US strikes several times, while resistance groups affiliated with the PMU have reportedly carried out attacks against US targets.

On 6 March, a drone struck a hotel in Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), where US military personnel were reportedly staying. Ashab al-Kahf, an Iraqi resistance group, claimed responsibility for the attack. No casualties were reported.

The following day, a drone attack targeted the Erbil airport, where US forces maintain a base.

The IRI later took credit for the attack. “Our brave men targeted the airport base in Erbil, occupied by the American occupation, with two drones, which successfully struck their targets,” the group said in a statement.

The attack was carried out in response to Israel’s killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war. The strike was launched in fulfillment of their “religious duty,” and “in retaliation for the Zionist-American aggression,” the statement added.

Earlier in the day, missiles were fired at the perimeter of the US Embassy in Baghdad, leading Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to direct security forces to seek those involved.

On 5 March, unknown helicopters air-dropped foreign troops into a desert area near the city of Najaf in central Iraq.

An Iraqi army unit approached the unknown forces, believing them to be US troops. The unknown group fired on the Iraqis, killing one soldier and injuring two others.

A security source told Al-Hurra that “the almost certain information indicates that it is an Israeli force,” adding that “the force has installed jamming and tracking radars to monitor drones and missiles launched from Iraq and Iran.”