“Our jihadist operations against the American occupation will continue until the last of its soldiers are removed from the land of Iraq,” Abu Ali al-Askari, an official from Kataib Hezbollah, one of the pro-Iran groups Washington blames for the recent attacks, said in a statement.
“The American evil embassy remains a forward operations base for managing military and security operations, and a den of espionage,” he said. “Yesterday’s group of operations is only the beginning of a new rule of engagement, and the coming days will determine the level of response.”
A series of rockets targeted the US embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Friday, causing no casualties. The attack prompted Washington to call on Baghdad to protect diplomatic missions in the country, adding the US reserves the right to defend itself.
The headquarters of the Iraqi National Security Service in Baghdad, Erbil International Airport, and a civilian building near the airport were also hit with drones and rockets on Friday.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of militias, said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it carried out eleven attacks against “American occupation in Iraq and Syria,” using dozens of rockets and drones in the assaults on Friday. It did not detail which sites it targeted.
There have been at least 78 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since mid-October, leaving 66 American personnel injured, according to the Pentagon. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed most of the attacks, which are in retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in its war on Gaza.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in a phone call on Saturday warned US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin against taking any direct response to militia attacks without approval from Baghdad.
Sudani “emphasized the security services' capability to pursue and expose those involved in attacks, cautioning against a direct response without government approval,” according to a statement from his office.
The US has responded with drone and airstrikes. On November 22, US warplanes struck pro-Iran fighters in Jurf al-Nasr (formerly Jurf al-Sakhar) in northern Babil province, killing eight members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi). Another five PMF fighters were killed in a US drone strike in Kirkuk on December 3.
Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, the two groups Washington blames for the attacks, are both designated terrorist organizations by the US.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019.
