Messages that surfaced on the social media application Telegram on Monday claim, while others deny, that Iran’s terror proxy Kataib Hezbollah will resume attacks on U.S. forces in its homeland of Iraq, leaving the group’s intentions unclear. It remains as it is.
Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, is one of Iran’s most powerful proxy terrorist organizations in Iraq. It is a prominent member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are a predominantly Shiite, Iranian-backed militia that Baghdad legalized and integrated into its military at the height of its war with the Sunni Islamic State caliphate. Kataib Hezbollah is also believed to be part of the terrorist coalition known as “.Islamic resistance movement in IraqIt debuted on October 7th in the wake of the disastrous invasion of Israel by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists. The Islamic Resistance Movement in Iraq does not reveal who its leaders are, what groups they belong to, or exactly where they operate.
Kataib Hezbollah, under the banner of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Iraq, is believed to have been involved in the killing of three American servicemen in a drone strike on the Syria-Jordan border in late January, and has He was the first human to die. From October 7th.
In the same month, the terrorist organization issued a statement claiming it “continues to support Gaza and Israeli-occupied Palestine.” [sic] Continuing devastating attacks until the US occupation forces were driven out of Iraq and the region. ” Then, suddenly, on January 31, a message purported to be from the Kataib Hezbollah leadership appeared on Telegram, claiming that the terrorists would halt attacks on US forces “to avoid embarrassing the Iraqi government.”
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 18, 2024
In February, Reuters reported, citing a long list of unnamed sources, that Iran had ordered its Iraqi proxies to send American citizens over concerns that Washington would respond by targeting terror leaders in Tehran. It was reported that he was ordered to avoid attacks on The order was said to have come from Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) foreign terrorist force. Qaani took the job in 2020 after President Donald Trump’s administration removed his predecessor Qassem Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah founder and leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in an airstrike. there was.
Multiple media outlets, including Iranian state-run news outlets such as Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)reported on Monday that an alleged moratorium on attacks against Americans by Kataib Hezbollah has ended. According to an Iraqi local newspaper, Kurdistan 24a message posted on Telegram that purportedly heralded the resumption of attacks denounced Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani’s friendship visit to Washington, which culminated this weekend.
“Following al-Sudani’s visit to Washington, there are likely to be no significant consequences of the withdrawal of these forces,” the statement said. “The Islamic Resistance Army has decided to return to military attacks on U.S. forces.”
Sudani and his regime signed According to the Kurdish media outlet Rudaw, during the president’s visit to Washington, large-scale defense deals were made with US companies and the US government, including existing contracts in the field of military aviation and air defense. A readout of his talks with President Joe Biden and senior Biden administration officials showed that Sudani spent much of the visit enthusiastically seeking a defense deal with the government to acquire more U.S.-made weapons, and on “national security issues.” It was shown that the company spent its time promoting the importance of partnerships. Reports do not indicate that President Sudani hastened to come up with a concrete schedule for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, which the PMF group has long demanded.
“Due to the Iraqi resistance movement, the Iraqi Prime Minister has been given three months to negotiate with the US military to determine a concrete date for withdrawal from Iraq,” Kataib Hezbollah allegedly posted on Telegram. Ru. read. “But now… it has become clear that some political parties have been lying. There is no intention of any foreign country leaving Iraq.” Therefore, the decision was made to “resume military action.”
What lends credence to this announcement is the documented attack on a US military base in Syria that apparently took place outside of Iraq on Sunday.According to reports, the projectile origin In Zumar, Iraq. No casualties were reported at press time. Terrorist groups including Kataib Hezbollah did not claim the attack, but it was the first of its kind since February, shortly after Kataib Hezbollah first announced it would stop targeting Americans.
Hezbollah terror mastermind Hassan Nasrallah has admitted that oil tankers are heading from Iran to Lebanon in apparent defiance of US sanctions. https://t.co/F5Yt4Zfkfi
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But hours after the original post on Monday claiming a resumption of attacks went viral, another Telegram channel linked to Kataib Hezbollah was denied He called it “fabricated news” and claimed to have issued that message.
“Sabreen News, another popular Telegram group close to Kataib Hezbollah, later said there had been no official statement from the Iran-backed faction,” Saudi news network Al Arabiya reported. report on monday.
Just as Iranian and Tehran-linked news outlets spread the initial message of a return to anti-American violence, terrorist propaganda outlets also shared that denial. Al-Mayadeen, a news agency linked to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, said its Baghdad correspondent denied any repeat attack.
“Reports about the resumption of operations against US forces by the Islamic Resistance Forces in Iraq are false,” Al-Mayadeen reported. according to To the anti-establishment media outlet “Iran International.” “Iraqi’s Kataib Hezbollah Brigades have not issued any statement on this matter.”
Neither the Kataib Hezbollah leadership nor the Iraqi Islamic Resistance Movement have directly addressed the confusion as of press time.
