A powerful blast rocked a military base near Baghdad Friday housing members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which has close ties to Iran, according to multiple reports.
Israeli and US officials have both denied responsibility for the explosion.
“The blast has caused material damage and injuries,” PMF said in a statement, according to Reuters.
One PMP fighter was killed and six were wounded, the outlet said.
“The United States has not conducted air strikes in Iraq today,” US Central Command told Bloomberg News.
“Israel has no involvement in the reports of explosions in Iraq”, an Israeli official told CNN.
The blast occurred some 20 miles south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, at the Kalsu military base, which is the headquarters for the PMP.
The Institute for the Study of War notes that PMP – a formal Iraqi security force – has been “infiltrated” by Iran and is used to “wield significant influence in Iraq.”
“Iran’s cooptation of the PMF enables Tehran to pursue its objectives in Iraq while obfuscating its actual involvement in Iraqi internal affairs,” according to the think tank.
PMF groups are responsible for some of the hundreds of rocket and drone attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since last October, when Israel declared war against Hamas.
The explosion in Iraq comes one day after Israel launched a “limited’ strike that reportedly hit near a major airbase in Iran’s central city of Isfahan, home to 2 million people and an underground uranium enrichment site.
The strike was in response to last weekend’s unprecedented missile and drone attack against the Jewish nation by Iran – retaliation for the bombing of an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria.
