Trump says Iraq more friendly after US attacks on Iran

“Iraq has been a much different place since we hit them with those B-2 bombers and knocked out and obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability," Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting in the White House.

“Iran has gone down many, many steps … they’re really not the bully of the Middle East anymore,” Trump said. "I will tell you, Iraq has been a much friendlier place. They talk to us."

He was responding to a question from an Iraqi Kurdish journalist about a rocket attack on Thursday at Khor Mor gas field in the region which halted production for four days. No casualties were reported in the attack, which local officials blamed on Iran-backed militias.

The United States launched surprise strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites on June 22, in attacks Trump has repeatedly said "obliterated" Tehran's capabilities.

"I saved a lot of lives," Trump continued, "Iraq nominated us for the Nobel Prize, and that was great honor. We didn't expect that from Iraq. Iraq has been a much different place since the taking out of Iran, the nuclear capability.”

Emerging from years of civil war which followed a US invasion in 2003, Baghdad is caught between the competing influence of Tehran and Washington.

US envoy to Iraq Mark Savaya condemned the gas field attack as the work of “armed groups operating illegally and driven by hostile foreign agendas.”

Kurdish authorities have frequently accused armed groups aligned with Tehran of targeting energy infrastructure to pressure the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and undermine US-linked projects.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the attack as “an assault on all of Iraq” and said a joint investigation with Kurdish authorities would be launched.