American bombing of Iraq .. anger and official condemnation and the Shiite authority and Iran disavow

The office of the Supreme Shiite Authority in Iraq, Ali Sistani, announced that the Iraqi authorities are the only one authorized to respond to the "sinful assault" on Sunday, and Iran denied its relationship with an attack that targeted American forces in Iraq before the bombing.

Al-Sistani's office condemned the American bombing, stressing "the need to respect Iraqi sovereignty and not violate it under the pretext of responding to illegal practices by some parties."

The statement stressed that the official Iraqi authorities are the only ones concerned with dealing with these practices and taking measures to prevent them, calling on the authorities to work not to make Iraq an arena for settling regional and international accounts, as he put it.

In turn, the popular crowd announced that the death toll from the bombing on its sites west of Anbar yesterday had risen to 28, and the wounded to 51, and the leader of the popular crowd, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, said the response would be "very harsh."

In an intervention on Al-Jazeera, the leader of the Movements Directorate told the Popular Mobilization Authority, Kazem Al-Rabaiwi, that the crowd obtained the support of all political parties in Iraq in all its directions to retain the right to respond, considering that the popular crowd is part of the official security services.

Al-Rabawi added that the participation of the Hashd in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq "disturbed the American forces."

Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the attack and considered it a violation of the country's sovereignty, and called in a statement to ensure the protection of Iraqi missions, embassies, military bases and "international forces supporting Iraq’s efforts in countering terrorism."

Saleh also stressed the need to spare his country the consequences of regional and international conflicts, calling for restraint and contain escalation.

While Speaker of Parliament Muhammad al-Halbousi called on everyone to show restraint and a commitment to protect diplomatic missions and coalition forces in Iraq, the caretaker government considered the US bombing a "dangerous escalation".

Iranian denial
On the other hand, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabie denied any role of his country in the attack on the American forces in Iraq, accusing the United States of trying to justify its attacks in violation of international laws and its killing of civilians through baseless allegations, according to his description.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards condemned the American attack in Anbar yesterday, saying that responding to it is the right of the Iraqi people and the popular crowd according to international laws.

And the Revolutionary Guards added that removing the occupying American forces from Iraq is the guarantor of achieving security and stability there, as he put it.

The US Department of Defense issued a statement yesterday confirming the targeting of five locations of the Iraqi Hizballah battalions of the Popular Mobilization, including 3 in Iraq and 2 in Syria, in response to the missile attacks launched by the battalions on Iraqi bases hosting American soldiers and diplomats in Kirkuk, which resulted in the killing of a civilian contractor An American was injured and 4 American service personnel were injured.

As for the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, he said that his country's "strict" response in Iraq came to prevent Iran from endangering the lives of Americans, and that the attack on his country's forces was not the first.