An Iran-backed militia vowed yesterday to retaliate for US military strikes in Iraq and Syria that killed 25 of its fighters and wounded dozens of others.

Iraq described the attacks on Kataeb Hezbollah as a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty, and Iran said the airstrikes were “an obvious case of terrorism”.

Moqtada al-Sadr, the notorious Iraqi Shia cleric, said yesterday that he was willing to work with Iran-backed militia groups – his political rivals – to end the US military presence in Iraq through political and legal means. If that did not work, he would “take other actions” in co-operation with his rivals to kick out US troops.

His militia fought US troops for years following Washington’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.

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The US launched strikes against five targets in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, aiming to damage Kataeb Hezbollah – a separate entity to the better-known Hezbollah, based in Lebanon – which the US blames for the killing last week of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base.

The US attack – the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia since 2011 – represents an escalation in the proxy war between the US and Iran playing out in the Middle East.

Russia’s foreign ministry called the “exchange of strikes” “unacceptable”, and called for restraint. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, yesterday praised the “important” strikes, in a phone call to Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state.

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