Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah is one of Iraq’s elite armed factions with the closest ties to Iran.
Baghdad:
The Iranian-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataeb Hezbollah said in a statement that it announced the suspension of all military operations against US forces in the region, a decision aimed at preventing the Iraqi government from “embarrassing”.
The decision came after three U.S. troops were killed in a drone strike near the Jordan-Syria border. The Pentagon said the attack bore the “footprint” of Kataeb Hezbollah, but a final assessment has not yet been made.
Kataib Hezbollah was founded in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and is one of Iraq’s elite armed factions with the closest ties to Iran.
It is the most powerful armed faction in Iraq’s Islamic Resistance, an umbrella group of hardline Shia militant groups that has claimed more than 150 attacks on U.S. forces since the Gaza war began in early October .
Western and Iraqi officials say the Iraqi government is backed by political parties and militias close to Iran, though not directly by hardline groups that have opened fire on U.S. troops.
Baghdad condemned the attack and said that as long as the war in Gaza continues, the regional situation will continue to escalate.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed on Monday that the United States will take “all necessary actions” to defend its troops in the wake of deadly drone strikes, even as President Joe Biden’s administration stresses it is not seeking war with Iran .
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
