{"id":5729,"date":"2026-03-29T03:35:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T03:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/air-strikes-in-iraq-kill-three-pmf-fighters-two-police\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T03:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T03:35:55","slug":"air-strikes-in-iraq-kill-three-pmf-fighters-two-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/air-strikes-in-iraq-kill-three-pmf-fighters-two-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Air strikes in Iraq kill three PMF fighters, two police"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Ex-paramilitary group, set up to fight ISIL, but now integrated in Iraqi forces, blames US and Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Air strikes targeting Iraq\u2019s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) have killed three fighters and two Iraqi police, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continued to spill over Iraq\u2019s eastern border.<\/p>\n<p>An Iraqi security source told Al Jazeera that Saturday\u2019s double-bombing of the PMF\u2019s headquarters near northern Iraq\u2019s Kirkuk Airport also wounded two other fighters and six Iraqi soldiers.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/podcasts\/2026\/3\/26\/the-take-why-iraq-is-the-most-fragile-front-in-the-us-israel-war-on-iran\">The Take: Why Iraq is the most fragile front in the US-Israel war on Iran<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/the-take-2\/2026\/3\/26\/aje-onl-tt_irq_neighborspillover_av_v2-260326\">Why Iraq is the most fragile front in the US-Israel war on Iran<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/25\/a-heinous-crime-air-strikes-kill-seven-fighters-in-iraqs-anbar\">Iraq to summon US envoy after air strikes kill seven fighters in Anbar<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>A statement from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/19\/strikes-kill-two-pmf-fighters-in-northern-iraq-amid-wider-war-group-says\">ex-paramilitary coalition<\/a>, which is now integrated into the regular Iraqi army, blamed the United States and Israel, saying that those killed had been \u201csubjected to a treacherous Zionist-American\u201d attack.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, the Reuters news agency quoted security sources as saying that two members of the Iraqi police were killed in an air strike targeting the PMF in Mosul, about 105 miles (170km) northwest of Kirkuk.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting from Baghdad, Al Jazeera\u2019s Nicolas Haque said that Iraq was turning into an \u201cexpanding battleground\u201d in the crisis, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran and now threatens to engulf the region in a protracted conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Since the war broke out, pro-Iran armed groups within the PMF, which was formed on the orders of Najaf-based Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in 2014 to fight ISIL (ISIS), have claimed responsibility for attacks on US interests in Iraq and beyond and have themselves been targeted.<\/p>\n<p>Haque said the PMF takes its orders from Baghdad, but some factions are loyal to Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat makes it very difficult for Baghdad to hold all of this together. Up until the war, the government successfully brought everybody around the table [and] was able to manage the different factions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>But as the war expands into Iraq, Baghdad has found itself \u201con a tightrope\u201d between the US and Iran, said Haque.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can\u2019t afford to turn their back on their biggest neighbour, Iran. Nor can they afford to turn their back on the United States,\u201d he said, noting the economic and security ties between Baghdad and both countries.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday also saw two drones targeting an airbase serving as a hub for US and coalition forces near Erbil airport in Iraq\u2019s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Haque said the US C-RAM air defence system was activated and intercepted the drones.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"iraq-attacks-a-worrying-development-macron\">Iraq attacks \u2018a worrying development\u2019: Macron<\/h2>\n<p>In parallel, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported a drone attack on the house of Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdish region, in the western town of Duhok.<\/p>\n<p>Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, condemned \u201cin the strongest terms\u201d the assault.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce again, we call on the federal government to act on its responsibility, bring these outlaw criminals to justice, and curb the continued terrorist attacks carried out by these groups,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that he had spoken to Barzani, calling increased attacks in Iraq a \u201cworrying development\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In other developments, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that a drone had crashed into the southern Majnoon oilfield \u201cwithout detonating, causing no damage or injuries\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ex-paramilitary group, set up to fight ISIL, but now integrated in Iraqi forces, blames US and Israel. Air strikes targeting Iraq\u2019s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) have killed three fighters and two Iraqi police, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continued to spill over Iraq\u2019s eastern border. An Iraqi security source told Al Jazeera that Saturday\u2019s &#8230; <a title=\"Air strikes in Iraq kill three PMF fighters, two police\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/air-strikes-in-iraq-kill-three-pmf-fighters-two-police\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Air strikes in Iraq kill three PMF fighters, two police\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}