Iraq blames Iran for attack on prime minister

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadhimi appeared in a televised address Sunday with a bandaged hand. He decried the “cowardly” drone attack on his home and called for calm and restraint in the country. On Sunday, Iraqi security intercepted one drone, but another hit the house with explosives, injuring at least seven security guards.

Who was behind the attack? No party has claimed responsibility, but Iraqi officials were quick to blame Iranian-backed militia groups. In October’s parliamentary elections, the militias lost two-thirds of their seats. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of the U.S. Central Command, told an Arabic news station that Iran sponsored the attack, and the State Department decried the event as an act of terrorism. But international experts think it was unlikely that Iran would have tried to assassinate such a prominent figure when it has been trying to prevent violence on the western border. According to two Iraqi politicians, the top general of Iran’s Quds Forces visited al-Khadimi on Sunday afternoon and told him Iran had nothing to do with the attack.

Dig deeper: Read Lynde Langdon’s report in The Sift from earlier this year about the U.S. military ending its combat mission in Iraq.