‘Categorically false’: US denies reports that it targeted security forces in Iraq

The US has said that reports of it allegedly targeted Iraqi security forces are false and "offensive to the long years of friendship with Iraqi.

A US State Department spokesperson denied on Thursday claims that the United States had targeted Iraqi security forces, a day after a military clinic was struck in the country's west, leaving seven dead.

An Iraqi soldier stands guard at the site of a destroyed healthcare center in the Habbaniyah military base, which was targeted by in an airstrike killing seven security personnel and wounding 13 others, in Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad on March 26, 2026. (AFP)

"Any claims that the United States has targeted Iraqi Security Forces are categorically false, incompatible with the US-Iraq partnership, and offensive to the long years of friendship and cooperation between US and Iraqi forces," the spokesperson told AFP.

The Iraqi authorities have not directly accused the US of the strike that hit western Iraq earlier this week. On Wednesday, Baghdad said the incident was "undermining the ties between the peoples of Iraq and the United States". Previously they said they would summon the country's charge d'affaires over a different attack in the same area, which targeted a paramilitary group.