An airstrike attributed to a US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II hit a military clinic at the Habbaniyah base in western Iraq on March 25, 2026, killing seven Iraqi soldiers and wounding 13 others, in what Baghdad called a serious breach of international law. The incident prompted a diplomatic confrontation.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry said the strike targeted a military clinic and an engineering unit at the base in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. The ministry added that the aircraft fired again as rescue teams worked at the site.
An American A-10 aircraft is the one that carried out the attack on Al-Habbaniyah base in western Iraq pic.twitter.com/5ZgHKpdF3C
— War Flash (@WarFlash_2630) March 25, 2026
Shared base complicates targeting
The Habbaniyah base is shared by Iraq’s regular army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state-affiliated paramilitary network that includes brigades with ties to Iran. A senior Iraqi military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a PMF facility sits near the army medical unit that was struck.
US forces have been conducting strikes against Iran-aligned PMF factions since the start of Operation Epic Fury, the US military campaign against Iran launched on February 28, 2026.
The strike came two days after a separate attack on the same base killed 15 PMF fighters, including a senior provincial commander. Neither the US nor Israel claimed responsibility for either strike.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II, known as the Warthog, has been among the aircraft used in Operation Epic Fury against Iran-aligned militia positions in Iraq. The aircraft operates at low altitude and carries a 30mm rotary cannon.
Videos circulated on social media in mid-March showing an A-10 strafing Iranian-backed militia positions in Iraq with its cannon.
USAF A-10 Warthog strafing Iranian-backed militias in Iraq tonight with its GAU-8 Avenger autocannon. pic.twitter.com/gXKy1a0CAc
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 13, 2026
Washington denies targeting Iraqi forces
A State Department spokesperson told Alhurra any claims that the US targeted Iraqi security forces are categorically false and inconsistent with the US-Iraq partnership, adding that such claims misrepresent years of cooperation between US and Iraqi forces.
The US said it had repeatedly asked Iraq to provide information on the locations of its security forces to avoid unintended incidents during operations against Iran-backed militias, but had not received a response from Iraqi authorities.
Baghdad summons US diplomat, then joins coordination committee
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani instructed the Foreign Ministry to summon the US chargé d’affaires in Baghdad and deliver a formal protest note. Baghdad also announced it would file a complaint with the UN Security Council. A spokesman for al-Sudani said Iraq reserves the right to respond by all means permitted under the UN Charter.
On March 26, 2026, at the first meeting of the newly established High Joint Coordination Committee, the Iraqi and US sides agreed to intensify cooperation to prevent terrorist attacks and ensure that Iraqi territory is not used as a launching point for aggression against Iraqi people, Iraqi security forces, strategic facilities, or US personnel and diplomatic missions.