The former Iraqi premier has been forced to deny allegations that his government gave permission for the US air strike that killed General Ghasem Soleimani in Baghdad this year.
Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who served as prime minister from 2018 until May this year, intervened after his predecessor, Haider Al-Abadi, claimed in a statement to Al-Iraqiya TV on December 12 that Iraq had approved the attack on the IRGC Quds Force commander in January, going on to criticize Iraqi officials' lack of scrutiny concerning the nature of aircraft sorties entering Iraqi airspace.
The drone strike close to Baghdad International Airport on January 3 not only killed Soleimani but Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chairman of the Popular Mobilization Committee.
In a statement issued through his media office Abdul-Mahdi said that since the summer of 2019, there had been “dangerous escalations” in Iraq due to the shelling of the PMC’s military headquarters. The Iraqi leadership, he said, had been forced to implement a ban on all forms of aviation, including drones, unless approval was specifically given by the Iraqi authorities.
Abdul Mahdi confirmed that his government had not granted approval for any aircraft. He also reproached Al-Abadi, saying that “sensitive topics that affect the supreme interests of the country” should not be neglected but nor should they be twisted, intentionally or unintentionally, into “verbal speculation”.
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