SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah threatened to increase attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq if the United States does not withdraw all troops in the country.
Head of Kataib Hezbollah’s security section Abu Ali Askari said the recent suicide bombing in Baghdad’s Sadr City that killed 30 people would not be a “justification for maintaining the occupation forces”.
“If the enemy does not explicitly announce troop withdrawal … the resistance will continue to increase its operations on all its positions until the last soldier leaves,” Askari said in a statement on Saturday.
“No one will protect them from the fire of the resistance,” he added.
Iraqi militia groups have already increased drone and rocket attacks on bases that host U.S.-led Coalitions troops in Iraq.
On Friday, a base housing Coalition troops in Erbil was attacked by a “booby-trapped drone”, causing no casualties.
An Iraqi militia group called Thaereen Brigade affiliated to the Iraqi “resistance faction” claimed responsibility for the attack.
Attacks on bases hosting U.S. and Coalition troops in Iraq have increased since the United States carried out airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups last month.
Iraqi militia groups aligned with Iran vowed to retaliate after U.S. strikes on the Iraqi-Syrian border killed four of their members last month.
The United States told the U.N. Security Council that it targeted Iranian-backed militia in Syria and Iraq with air strikes to deter them and Tehran from conducting or supporting further attacks on U.S. personnel or facilities.
Iran denied supporting attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria and condemned U.S. air strikes on Iranian-backed groups.
