BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday said the claims that U.S. forces pounded a Hashd Shaabi unit near the border with Syria has not been proved, and some military reports blamed Islamic State (IS) militants for the attack.
"The intelligence of the Hashd Shaabi command said they have no information about it (shelling on Hashd Shaabi unit), and the Joint Operations Command said that Daesh (IS group) itself used sophisticated cannons and a car bomb in the attack," Abadi said at a press conference after his weekly cabinet meeting.
"We have contacted the Sayyd al-Shuhadaa Brigades, but even for them it (U.S. involvement) is not confirmed. Everyone denied," Abadi said.
Abadi said that the government has launched an investigation into the incident, "but the results of the investigation so far has not confirmed the incident."
"The international coalition has no authority to carry out bombardment without the knowledge of Iraq," Abadi concluded.
For his part, the U.S. army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman of the international coalition in Iraq, denied in a brief statement the allegations of coalition strikes on the Hashd Shaabi forces near the Iraqi-Syrian border, asserting that the information is "inaccurate. No coalition strikes there."
Earlier, the Hashd Shaabi unit said in a statement the U.S. forces carried out "heavy bombardment on Monday morning on the posts of Sayyd al-Shuhadaa Brigades in Akashat area near the border with Syria, leaving large number of martyrs and wounded fighters."
It said that group "holds the U.S. forces the responsibility for the consequences of the action. We declare that it will not go without punishment."
Local media reports said that over 40 fighters from the paramilitary unit were killed and some 30 others wounded by U.S. artillery bombardment on the units posts in western Iraq.
The incident came as the Iraqi forces, including the predominantly Shiite Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters, are preparing to liberate the IS-held town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul.
On July 10, Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.
