Kataeb Hezbollah claims to suspend attacking US force in Iraq

Baghdad – A pro-Iran group in Iraq said Tuesday that it would halt its attacks on US troops, after Washington pledged a “very consequential” response to a drone attack that killed three of its soldiers.

“We announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces — in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government,” Kataeb Hezbollah wrote on its website.

The United States blamed “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” for Sunday’s drone strike on a remote Jordanian desert border base.

The first American military deaths in an attack since the October 7 outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war have ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Tehran at the start of a US election year.

United States President Joe Biden’s administration has stated that it does not want war with Iran — where officials have sought to distance themselves from the attack.

Kataeb Hezbollah said that “our brothers in the axis (of resistance) — especially in the Islamic Republic — do not know how we wage our jihad, and they often object to the pressure and escalation against the American occupation forces in Iraq and Syria.”

On Monday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that the Jordan attack had “the footprints of Kataeb Hezbollah”, which Washington has blamed for previous violence and which it classifies as “terrorists”.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 165 times since mid-October — 66 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and one in Jordan.

The majority of these attacks have been claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”. It is a loose alliance of pro-Iran fighters which claims to defend Palestinians and calls for the withdrawal of the roughly 2,500 US troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

Kataeb Hezbollah urged its fighters to “use passive defense (temporarily), if any hostile American action occurs towards them.”