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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A top Iran-backed militia group in Iraq has accused the United Kingdom of orchestrating an attack on the Iranian consulate in Karbala on Sunday following the assassination of a well-known activist in the southern city.
Angry protestors on Sunday headed to the Iranian consulate in Karbala and ignited fires in front of the building in response to the assassination of a prominent activist in the city. Many blamed the killing on the Iran-backed militias.
Kataib Hezbollah, a hardline militia that falls under the umbrella of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), is accusing the UK of being behind the arson.
"The threads of this conspiracy that are woven at the headquarters of the British Embassy of Evil in Baghdad and Beirut in a blatant conspiratorial, aggressive intervention must be paid for," reads a statement from the group, considered a terrorist organization by the US, released on Monday.
The PMF was created in 2014 when Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa (a religious call to action) urging young Iraqis to take up arms against the Islamic State group (ISIS). The PMF was formally recognized as an Iraqi armed force by the parliament in 2016, enjoying similar privileges to the Iraqi Army.
Since the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq in late 2017, the role of the PMF has increasingly been called into question. Hardline elements of the network are widely blamed for a slew of rocket attacks on coalition forces' bases in recent years.
UK ambassador to Iraq on Sunday condemned the killing of the activist.
“There is an urgent need for concrete measures to hold perpetrators accountable and protect Iraqi citizens as they prepare for elections in October,” Stephen Hickey tweeted.
Kataib Hezbollah's threat of payback came on the same day American contractor Lockheed Martin Company announced the company would be relocating its maintenance teams for Iraq's F-16 fighter jets out of the country, following multiple rocket attacks on Balad Air Base, the latest of which occurred on May 3.
Officials have told the New York Times that the company's withdrawal would impact the operation of the jets, which are used in the fight against the ISIS group.
There have been a recent uptick in reported ISIS attacks in disputed areas with security vacuums, such as Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahaddin, and Nineveh.
Over the past two weeks, ISIS has killed around a dozen Iraqi and Peshmerga forces' soldiers.
In its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba, ISIS claimed on Thursday it had conducted 52 attacks across Iraq between April 29 and May 5, killing and injuring 102 people.
Angry protestors on Sunday headed to the Iranian consulate in Karbala and ignited fires in front of the building in response to the assassination of a prominent activist in the city. Many blamed the killing on the Iran-backed militias.
Kataib Hezbollah, a hardline militia that falls under the umbrella of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), is accusing the UK of being behind the arson.
"The threads of this conspiracy that are woven at the headquarters of the British Embassy of Evil in Baghdad and Beirut in a blatant conspiratorial, aggressive intervention must be paid for," reads a statement from the group, considered a terrorist organization by the US, released on Monday.
The PMF was created in 2014 when Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa (a religious call to action) urging young Iraqis to take up arms against the Islamic State group (ISIS). The PMF was formally recognized as an Iraqi armed force by the parliament in 2016, enjoying similar privileges to the Iraqi Army.
Since the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq in late 2017, the role of the PMF has increasingly been called into question. Hardline elements of the network are widely blamed for a slew of rocket attacks on coalition forces' bases in recent years.
UK ambassador to Iraq on Sunday condemned the killing of the activist.
“There is an urgent need for concrete measures to hold perpetrators accountable and protect Iraqi citizens as they prepare for elections in October,” Stephen Hickey tweeted.
Kataib Hezbollah's threat of payback came on the same day American contractor Lockheed Martin Company announced the company would be relocating its maintenance teams for Iraq's F-16 fighter jets out of the country, following multiple rocket attacks on Balad Air Base, the latest of which occurred on May 3.
Officials have told the New York Times that the company's withdrawal would impact the operation of the jets, which are used in the fight against the ISIS group.
There have been a recent uptick in reported ISIS attacks in disputed areas with security vacuums, such as Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahaddin, and Nineveh.
Over the past two weeks, ISIS has killed around a dozen Iraqi and Peshmerga forces' soldiers.
In its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba, ISIS claimed on Thursday it had conducted 52 attacks across Iraq between April 29 and May 5, killing and injuring 102 people.
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