A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II airstrike targeted a military clinic and engineering unit at the Habbaniyah base in Anbar province, western Iraq, on March 25, 2026, killing seven Iraqi soldiers and wounding 13 others. The Iraqi Defense Ministry reported that the aircraft fired again as rescue teams responded to the initial impact, in what Baghdad described as a serious breach of international law.
The Habbaniyah base is jointly used by Iraq’s regular army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state-affiliated paramilitary with Iran-linked brigades. A senior Iraqi military official noted a PMF facility near the struck army medical unit. This incident followed a separate attack two days prior that killed 15 PMF fighters, including a senior commander, at the same base; neither the US nor Israel claimed responsibility for that strike.
The A-10, known as the Warthog, operates low-altitude missions with a 30mm GAU-8 Avenger rotary cannon and has been deployed in Operation Epic Fury, the US campaign against Iran-aligned militias launched February 28, 2026. Social media videos from mid-March showed A-10s strafing such positions in Iraq.
A State Department spokesperson denied targeting Iraqi forces, calling claims false and inconsistent with US-Iraq cooperation, and noted repeated US requests for Iraqi security force locations went unanswered. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered a formal protest to the US chargé d’affaires and a UN complaint. On March 26, both nations agreed via the new High Joint Coordination Committee to enhance cooperation against threats.