Western diplomats are saying that Israel has carried out three strikes on Iranian missile stores in Iraq in recent week, the London-based pan-Arabic news outlet Asharq Alawsat reported Wednesday.
According to the sources quoted, the strikes have been carried out as part of "understandings" reached between the United States and Russia that Israel's security must be a priority. According to the diplomatic sources, the US and Russia have agreed that Israel must be allowed to track Iranian activity in Syria and Iraq and attack targets identified with Iran that could pose a security threat to Israel through long-range precision missiles and other weapons.
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On Tuesday, Iraqi news outlets reported a large explosion hit an arms depot belonging to an Iranian-backed militia faction north of Baghdad. This was the latest in a series of mysterious blasts at military bases and munitions depots around the country in the past few weeks.
The explosions have occurred in bases and warehouses belonging to militia groups under the umbrella of the mainly Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. The state-sanctioned PMF militias have fought alongside Iraq's regular armed forces against the Islamic State group.
One report from the Saudi Al Arabiya network claimed that the missiles destroyed on Tuesday had been transferred to Iraq by members of Shiite militias.
Iraq blamed Israel for the attack. Israel has struck Iranian bases in neighboring Syria on numerous occasions, and there has been speculation that it might be expanding its campaign to target Iranian bases to include Iraq.
Earlier Tuesday, a member of Iraq's defense cabinet claimed that an investigation into a strike last week on a facility belonging to Iranian-backed Shiite militias had been carried out by an Israeli drone with support from the US.
Neither the US nor Israel commented on the allegations.
In last week's strike, a massive explosion at a munitions depot southwest of Baghdad killed one civilian and wounded 13 others. The exact cause for the blast, which terrified residents and damaged nearby homes, is still unknown although some officials blamed it on faulty storage.
Last month, an explosion took place at a base in Amirli, in Iraq's northern Salaheddin province, killing two Iranians and causing a huge fire. That attack was blamed on an unmanned drone that dropped explosives, with some Shiite militias blaming it on the Islamic State group.
In response to the explosions, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi last week banned unauthorized flights throughout the country and ordered all military camps and munitions warehouses to be moved outside Iraqi cities. He ordered an urgent investigation into the explosions, whose results he said should be concluded within a week.
