BAGHDAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- At least five security members and a civilian were killed in overnight U.S. airstrikes on military bases housing paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces in south of capital Baghdad, the Iraqi military said on Friday.
The airstrikes were carried out at around 1:00 a.m. local time (2200 GMT Thursday), the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.
The airstrikes targeted the headquarters of Iraqi army's 19th Division, 46th brigade of Hashd Shaabi as well as emergency regiments and commandos in several areas located in the northern part of Babil province in addition to the under-construction airport of Karbala, it added.
The attacks resulted in the killing of five security members and a civilian worker in Karbala airport and the wounding of 11 security members, including five Hashd Shaabi members, the statement said.
The airstrikes also destroyed the buildings of the targeted headquarters as well as their equipment and weapons.
The JOC condemned the attack which violated the principle of partnership between the Iraqi security forces and the coalition forces, and is a violation to the sovereignty of the Iraqi state, according to the statement.
The airstrikes came after Wednesday's rocket attack on Camp Taji in north of Baghdad that killed two U.S. soldiers and one British service member and wounded a dozen others.
The military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq and the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad have been frequently targeted by insurgent mortar and rocket attacks.
The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution on Jan. 5, requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, just two days after a U.S. drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport.
The strike killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Hashd Shaabi forces.
Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support Iraqi forces in battles against the Islamic State, mainly for training and advisory purposes.
