Iraqi militia claims attack on Israel

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iraqi militia group on Friday claimed it attacked a city in the south of Israel.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said in a statement that it carried out an attack on Israel’s southernmost town of Eilat, on the Red Sea.

“The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted a target in the occupied Umm al-Rashrash, Eilat with appropriate weapons,” read the statement.

There are no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israeli media have reported a drone was shot down by Jordan in its airspace.

The group said the attack was in support of Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is at war against Palestinian Hamas. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 53,000 injured since October.

This is the second time the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to attack Eilat. The first was last month when the group said it would “strike the enemy stronghold.” 

The same group has carried out dozens of drone and rocket strikes on United States forces in Iraq and Syria.

Friday's attack comes amid a Red Sea crisis as Yemen’s Houthis, another pro-Iran militia, has vowed to target all ships on the way to Israel in the Bab al-Mandab strait, disrupting a key trade route.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said on Thursday that over 20 countries have agreed to join a US-led global coalition to safeguard commercial traffic in the Red Sea.