A source from the IRGC told the Kuwaiti Al Jarida newspaper that preliminary investigations indicate that Israel was behind the attack. An Israeli drone launched from a US base in Syria attacked the base, which stored short- and medium-range missiles.
The IRGC reached this conclusion because the type of missile that hit the camp is the same used by the IAF in attacks on Syria.
Iraqi sources told Al Jarida that the government would likely not attribute responsibility for the attack to Israel in order to play down the importance of the incident. If Israel is behind the attack, it would put the Iraqi government in a difficult position due to the role of US forces in the country.
The Lebanese al-Ahd news site quoted informed security sources as saying that the Iraqi PMF base was targeted by three Israeli Harop missiles which weigh 23 kg. and have a range of 1,000 km. according to Fars. "Only Israel is in possession of this type of weapon in the Middle East," according to Al-Ahd. The attack was carried out by an Israeli F-16, according to the news site.Reports indicated that Hezbollah forces were deployed at the base, according to IRNA.A spokesman for the Iraqi PMF dismissed the reports that Iranian military advisers were killed in the attack, according to the Iranian Fars News Agency."Opposite to what the biased media said, no advisers or IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) forces have been killed," said Ali al-Hosseni on Saturday.Fars also reported that the Arabic-language al-Etejah news channel had quoted "special sources" as saying that a US spy plane conducted reconnaissance operations against PMF and Iraqi army forces in the region before the attack on Friday."The US flew [a] B350 plane that is picked for [the] mission by the US intelligence services for air surveillance and is equipped with advanced vision systems. It can also carry 5 to 7 people," the source told al-Etejah.Al-Arabiya also reported that the international coalition had been monitoring the base before the attack.Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.