Sky News Arabia cited sources as saying on Saturday that the Iraqi Army had denied that an airstrike was conducted on a medical convoy near Camp Tahi in northern Baghdad.
This comes after the US-led coalition to defeat Daesh* in Iraq and Syria insisted that they had not carried out any airstrikes in the area over the past couple of days.
“[…] The coalition did not conduct airstrikes near Camp Taji (north of Baghdad) in recent days”, Army Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR), said on his Twitter page.
The statement followed Iran’s Popular Mobilisations Forces (PMF) claiming that a new airstrike targeted a convoy of PMF medics near Camp Taji in northern Baghdad. Shortly after, however, the PMF asserted that no medical convoys were targeted in Taji.
FACT: The Coalition @CJTFOIR did NOT conduct airstrikes near Camp Taji (north of Baghdad) in recent days.
— OIR Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III (@OIRSpox) January 4, 2020
PMF refuted reports regarding the death of at least six senior officials, including Shebl Al-Zaidi, Hamid Al-Jazaeri, Raed Al-Karawi.
Earlier, Reuters quoted unnamed sources as saying that the airstrike killed at least six people near Camp Taji.
LAST TIME
— @AlexanderAyala (@Alexand64216517) January 4, 2020
From #Cuba#IrakBajoFuego
Reports Reuters that a convoy of the Forces of Popular Mobilization was bombed at 1:12 (local time) near camp Taji, 30 km north of #Baghdad, where 6 people died and 3 were seriously injured. pic.twitter.com/Gx7NtwEAgf
While some reports suggested that the parties involved in the incident are unknown, others asserted that the US attacked a PMF convoy carrying the commander of the Kataib Imam Ali militia, Shbl al-Zaidi, and other yet-to-be-identified PMF leaders.
#DEVELOPING #Iraq| New Airstrikes targeting "#PMF's official" motorcade near #CampTaji, a military installation, also known as #CampCooke used by coalition forces near #Taji (17 mi) north of the city of #Baghdad pic.twitter.com/Kj303VrulG
— Bashar Mandalawi (@BasharMandalawi) January 3, 2020
The developments come after the US armed forces carried out an airstrike in Iraq's capital Baghdad on Friday, killing the head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis along with 10 other people.
The Pentagon said that the airstrike was authorised by US President Donald Trump and was aimed at "deterring future Iranian attack plans".
Iran’s top officials, for their part, pledged to retaliate against the US "crime" and accused Washington of engaging in "international terrorism".
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and an array of other countries.
