An Israeli satellite imaging firm released photos of a weapons
depot in southern Baghdad controlled by a pro-Iranian militia that was hit in
an alleged Israeli airstrike earlier this week.
ImageSat International said that damage characteristics
identified from the photos show “it is probable that the blast was caused by an
airstrike, followed by secondary explosions of the explosives stored in the
depot.”
On Tuesday, a former Iraqi deputy prime minister appeared to
blame Israel for the massive explosion on Monday.
“We believe they are weapons we were
holding onto for a neighboring state and they were targeted by an oppressive
colonial state on the basis of a treasonous Iraqi act,” former deputy prime
minister Baha al-Araji wrote on Twitter.
An unnamed security source said that Israel was behind the
strike.
“All indications point to Israel, perhaps with the support of
the United States, completing what it started in Syria in terms of targeting
sites with Iranian forces,” the source said.
The Israel Defense Forces has not commented on the reports.
According to foreign reports, Israel has been increasingly
active in carrying out airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq,
shifting its focus after years of reported raids aimed at keeping Tehran from
gaining a foothold in Syria.
Israeli officials have identified Iraq as a likely growing base
of operations for Iran-backed efforts against Israel.
“It is clear that we are in the midst of a real battle between
Israel and the United States against Iran and its allies in Iraq. It is clear
that the two sides chose Iraq to be the place for their unannounced battle,”
the unnamed security source said.
The blast occurred Monday in the Saqr military base in the
southern section of the Iraqi capital, which is ordinarily used by the
country’s Federal Police and Iran-backed militias according to Iraq’s Interior
Minister Saad Maan.
Local media reported that the weapons storehouse was controlled
by the Sayyid of Martyrs Battalions, an Iraqi Shiite militia supported by Iran.
In contrast to the opinion of the unnamed defense source, Adel
al-Karawi, spokesman for the Ansar Allah al-Awfiya in IMIS, said that “the data
regarding a fire breaking out at the Saqr base, near the al-Dura area south of
Baghdad, indicates the base was subject to a bombardment by an American [drone]
carrying missiles.”
The explosion set off some of the munitions stored on the base,
sending projectiles into surrounding neighborhoods.
According to Maan, 13 people were injured in the blast,
including two federal policemen and four IMIS members. It was not immediately
clear if the injuries were caused by the initial blast or the projectiles that
were launched following the blast.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said one person was killed
in the Monday incident and that civilians were also wounded. Mahdi ordered an
investigation into the blast along with “integrated safety measures at all
military bases and armed forces’ storage facilities to prevent it from
occurring again,” he wrote on Twitter.
But the unnamed security official said the results of the
investigation — as well as investigations into previous cases of bombings at
pro-Iranian militia bases — would likely never be publicized as doing so “will
bother the Iranians.”
“[Tehran has] adopted a strategy to not announce Israeli and
American targeting of their sites in Syria and later in Iraq,” the source
added.