The Iraqi armed faction Kataib Hezbollah refuted allegations of recommencing attacks on U.S. forces, branding them as "fabricated news" in a recent statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The refutation occurred several hours after the dissemination of a post across channels believed to be linked with the Iran-backed armed faction. This post proclaimed a renewal of attacks, approximately three months after they were halted. Additionally, on Sunday, at least five rockets purportedly originated from Iraq's Zummar town and targeted a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria, as confirmed by two Iraqi security sources to Reuters.
This incident marks the first assault on U.S. forces since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq halted their attacks against American troops. Notably, the attack coincides with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's return from a visit to the United States, where he met President Joe Biden at the White House.
Reports from two security sources and a senior army officer indicate that a rocket launcher mounted on a small truck was stationed in the border town of Zummar with Syria. The truck reportedly caught fire, triggering an explosion from unlaunched rockets, while warplanes operated in the vicinity.
“ Our security forces in the western Ninawa operations sector, near the Syrian border, launched a wide-ranging search and inspection operation for unlawful elements who targeted, at 21:50 today (Sunday), a base of the international coalition with several rockets deep into Syrian territory,” Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji, the head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell and Spokesperson on Iraqi Army’s joint operations command in a statement on Sunday said, “Our security forces found the vehicle from which the rockets were launched and set it on fire. The search operation continues to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
These events unfolded just one day after a significant explosion rocked a military base in Iraq, claiming the life of a member of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which includes Iran-backed groups. While the force commander attributed it to an attack, the army is conducting an investigation, denying the presence of warplanes during the incident.
After the start of Israel's war on Gaza, Iran-backed militias in Iraq under the name of Iraq's Islamic Resistance have conducted hundreds of attacks on US forces in both Iraq and Syria over Washington's unwavering support for Tel Aviv in its brutal onslaught on the besieged enclave.
But since early February, there have been a few reported attacks by the group on Israeli targets and US forces in Iraq and Syria.
