Baghdad considered it a dangerous escalation .. Dozens of dead and wounded in American raids on sites of the popular crowd

An official in the Iraqi popular crowd said the death toll from the American bombing of the sites of the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades rose to 25, and while the American Secretary of Defense announced that officials discussed other options with President Donald Trump, the Iraqi condemnations of the attacks continued.

Sources in the crowd said that among the dead was the commander of the 45th Brigade of the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigade.

The director of the Movements Directorate in the Popular Mobilization Authority, Jawad Kadhim al-Rabaiwi, added in a statement that 51 other battalion fighters were wounded by the American bombing.

Al-Rabiawi indicated that the death toll can be increased as a result of the severe injuries and the wounded in a critical condition.

Earlier Sunday, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced in two statements that two battalion locations in the Salloum Forest and Harash areas, west of Anbar, were subjected to three American airstrikes.

But US Defense Secretary Mark Esber said that F-15s bombed five targets, three in western Iraq, and two in eastern Syria, indicating that they were either command and control facilities or armories.

Offensive actions
Reuters quoted Esber as saying that Washington had taken offensive measures on Sunday against an Iranian-sponsored group.

He added that the attacks were successful, and that officials discussed other options with President Trump.

Esber did not rule out additional movements in the region. "We will take additional measures as necessary to ensure that we act for self-defense and to deter bad behavior from armed groups," he said.

For his part, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "What we did was make a decisive response that would make what President Trump said many months ago clear, that we will not stand idle in front of Iran's actions to endanger American men and women."

Mark Kimmitt, the former deputy commander of US forces in Iraq, said the US attack on Popular Mobilization sites in Iraq was in response to the killing of an American contractor and the wounding of other soldiers a few days ago.

Kimmitt added in an interview with Al-Jazeera that the American response was appropriate, because it shows the Hezbollah Brigades and others that they cannot do anything at any time and in any way, as he put it.

Iraqi convictions
Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the attack, saying it was a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

The Iraqi caretaker government said that the US air strike is a dangerous escalation.

The military spokesman for the caretaker head said that Adel Abdel Mahdi had informed the US defense minister of his strong rejection to bombing the crowd, without indicating how this message was reported.

The spokesman pointed out that Abdul-Mahdi ordered an emergency meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security, with the aim of taking the necessary measures to protect the Iraqis and preserve the security and sovereignty of Iraq.

"The repeated American bombing of the PMF camps is a systematic and open plan to weaken the heroic PMF, especially those at the border, and we strongly condemn the air aggression on a location in the PMF by means of drones," Hassan al-Kaabi, deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, said in a statement.

The victory coalition in the Iraqi parliament led by Haider al-Abadi called on the government to "obligate the American forces present on Iraqi soil the terms of the agreements signed between the two countries," noting that "these attacks will harm security, stability and bilateral relations."

The Asa’ib al-Haq faction led by Qais Khazali emphasized that “the American military presence has become a burden on the Iraqi state. Rather, it has become a source of threat and attack on our armed forces and security services.

For his part, Chief of Staff of the Popular Mobilization, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhannadi, indicated that "the blood of the martyrs and the wounded will not go to waste, and that the response will be harsh for the American forces."

And considered the Dawa Party, led by Nuri al-Maliki, that the US aircraft targeting the headquarters of the popular crowd, "a violation of the sovereignty of Iraq," expressing his refusal that Iraq be an arena to settle accounts with Iran.

American officials accuse Iran of launching missile attacks against military bases hosting American soldiers and diplomats in Iraq through its proxies from the Iraqi Shiite factions, which Tehran denies.

Tensions are running high between Washington and Tehran, two allies of Baghdad, amid fears that Iraq will turn into a battleground between the two countries.

It is noteworthy that about five thousand American soldiers are deployed in military bases throughout Iraq within the international coalition to fight the Islamic State.