US Plotting Attacks to Provoke New Crisis in Iraq

"The strike provided a pretext for American troops to launch strikes against resistance forces, therefore one could work out the scenario that a fake attack was planned on friendly bases so that they can take more military measures on grounds of retaliation," Ahmad Salek Kashani also said in an interview with ICANA.

Multiple rockets fell last week inside Iraq's Taji military base that houses US-led coalition troops, Financial Tribune reported.

A similar rocket attack on Taji a few days earlier had killed two American troops and a British soldier, prompting Washington to launch retaliatory airstrikes that killed six Iraqis.

The United States blamed the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia for the attack and targeted five locations that it claimed had stored Iranian weapons to attack the US-led coalition.

Iran has denied involvement in the incident and summoned the Swiss envoy to convey its protest against US allegations.

The claim that Iran or Iran-allied groups have been behind the strikes is "specifically deniable", according to the lawmaker, who said such operations cannot be launched by "recognized and responsible" groups such as Hashd al-Shaabi, an umbrella group of armed Shia factions, including Kataib Hezbollah.

"A reaction by American forces was predictable and they [political factions linked to militia groups] were well aware of the importance of keeping the situation calm while Iraq is in the process of forming a government," he said.

Kashani also did not rule out the possibility that the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group could be involved in the attacks, although noting that it is more likely to be planned by the US to delay the establishment of the Iraqi government.     

"The US military presence in Iraq has always been a security threat to Baghdad and something has to be done to address this issue," he said.