TEHRAN, Mar. 15 (MNA) – A member of Iraq’s Parliament Security and Defense Committee, Abbas Sarout believes that the attack on Camp Taji may have been fabricated by the US, in order to justify the airstrikes against multiple locations of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

"The Iraqi government and Joint Operations Command condemned the repeated US aggression,” Sarout said in an interview with Al-Ahd.

He added, "The one who targeted the CampTaji is an unknown enemy, because no groups or parties claimed responsibility for the attack,” saying, “The camp is protected by Iraqi security forces."

"Targeting the security forces and the civilian airport in Karbala and the Babylon police by the US is a clear violation of Iraqi sovereignty, and we condemn it,” he noted.

“It is not unlikely that there are some parties aiming to increase tension between the factions and the US and Iran behind these attacks,” he added, saying, “Perhaps, the attacks on the Camp Taji have been fabricated by the US, in order to justify the airstrikes against multiple locations of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).”

Iraq's Joint Operations Command announced on Saturday that 33 Katyusha rockets had been launched on Taji base north of Baghdad which houses US-led coalition troops and said the attack critically injured several Iraqi air defense servicemen.

A barrage of rockets hit an Iraqi military base housing US-led coalition troops for the second time this week.

Three coalition service personnel - a British woman and two Americans - were killed in the first attack on Camp Taji on Wednesday. The US-led military coalition in Iraq said in a statement that 18 107mm Katyusha rockets struck the base and suggested they may have been fired from a truck.

In retaliation, the US launched a series of airstrikes on militia bases across Iraq's south, killing five Iraqi security forces and a civilian.

MNA/FNA13981225000407