Iraqi Militia Claims It Has Halted Attacks on American Forces
Jose Nino
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On January 31, 2024, a prominent Iraqi militia stated that it had stopped attacks on American troops, a few days after three United States soldiers were killed in a drone attack on a base in Jordan. US authorities claimed that the drone strike was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups”.
“We announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government,” declared Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, secretary-general of Kataib Hizbollah. With respect to Kataib Hizbollah, this is a Shia militant group founded after the US’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“We will continue to defend our people in Gaza in other ways,” he declared in the statement. He added that the group’s fighters would be actively carrying out acts of “passive defense” should there be any “hostile American action” directed against them.
A Defense Department spokesperson said the January 28 strike on the Tower 22 base had the “footprints of Kataib Hizbollah.” US President Joe Biden said on January 30 he had decided on a response, but also stressed that the US did not “need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for.”
On January 31, the US blamed the attack on Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that Kataib Hizbollah is a part of.
“We believe that the attack in Jordan was planned, resourced and facilitated by an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which contains multiple groups including Kataib Hizbollah,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated on January 31.
Experts contend that the IRI surfaced after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that kicked off the war in Gaza. The IRI has taken credit for over 160 attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria.
The IRI is part of the Axis of Resistance led by Iran that has attacked Israeli and US assets across the Middle East since Hamas’ attack on Israel.
The US has responded to the Shia militia attacks with attacks of its own, which includes one in January in Baghdad that resulted in the killing of a senior commander belonging to another Iran-connected militia.
These tensions will only magnify as the Biden regime starts folding even more to the Zionist lobby. There’s no pressing national interest at stake in the Middle East. The main reason the US is still in the region is to serve Israeli geopolitical interests.
The quicker Americans figure out that the US is effectively a Zionist-occupied government, the quicker the US can move towards a more rational foreign policy.
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