Baghdad officials have strongly condemned the recent U.S. airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Iraq, viewing them as a threat to their country and further prompting calls for the U.S.-led military coalition to leave. The strikes, carried out on Friday, resulted in casualties and significant damage.

Militia officials have confirmed the deaths of 16 fighters, including five medics reportedly killed when an airstrike hit a base hospital in western al-Anbar province. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), comprising former armed groups now integrated into Iraqi government security forces, stated that seven fatalities occurred during the U.S. bombardment of its al-Anbar province operations headquarters. Additionally, at least 36 individuals were injured, and search efforts are underway to locate missing fighters.

The mayor of al-Qaim, a city close to the Syrian border where the strikes occurred, revealed that one civilian was killed, and five homes near the operations headquarters were destroyed. However, the mayor noted that many residents had evacuated their homes in anticipation of the attack, as they had received prior information about it.

The U.S. justified the airstrikes as retaliation for the drone attack that resulted in the deaths of three U.S. soldiers at a remote base in Jordan. The U.S. attributed the strike to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of militias, and specifically implicated the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia within the group. Kataib Hezbollah had previously announced a suspension of strikes on U.S. targets to avoid "embarrassing" the Iraqi government, under significant pressure from the U.S. to halt these attacks. As of Saturday, the militia has not commented on the Friday night airstrikes.

Another militia group, Harakat al-Nujaba, urged the U.S. to understand that "every action elicits a reaction" but expressed a desire to avoid escalating regional tensions. According to the group's spokesman, the targeted bases were mostly vacant during the U.S. attacks.

The Iraqi government spokesperson denounced the strikes on the Popular Mobilization Forces as "blatant aggression" and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. The PMF consists of militias that responded to a call from Iraq's senior Shiite cleric to combat ISIS in 2014 following the collapse of Iraqi army divisions. The Iraqi government declared three days of mourning for the deceased and rejected U.S. claims that they had been informed about the strikes beforehand, deeming it intentional deception.

Although Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and senior military leaders have expressed the continued need for the U.S.-led coalition and its support in Iraq, it has become politically untenable for these forces to remain. Al-Sudani previously initiated discussions with Western diplomats to establish a timetable for the departure of U.S.-led forces. Currently, the U.S. maintains approximately 2,500 service members in Iraq and another 900 in neighboring Syria.

The presence of militias in Iraq traces back to the security vacuum following the 2003 U.S. invasion, when Iraq's armed forces were disbanded. In response to the rise of al-Qaida and subsequent bombings, Shiite militias emerged to counter both the extremist group and U.S. forces, leading to a civil war. Many of these militias later integrated into the official security forces with the defeat of ISIS in 2019 but maintain strong ties to Iran.

The ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran has raised concerns that the U.S. military presence in Iraq is primarily focused on isolating Iran, as opposed to assisting Iraq and Syrian Kurds in their fight against ISIS.

The situation remains tense as Iraq's government and people grapple with the aftermath of Friday's airstrikes and consider the future of the U.S.-led coalition in the country. Awadh al-Taie contributed reporting from Baghdad.