Militias deny involvement in attacks on US embassy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Leaders of Iran-backed militias in Iraq have denied involvement in recent attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone, saying “resistance” groups have decided not to target the site. 

Kataib Hezbollah leader, Abu Ali al-Askari, said that the targeting of diplomatic missions is “unacceptable.”

"The decision of the Iraqi resistance is not to attack even the camp of the evil US embassy in Baghdad,” he said in a statement published to Telegram on Thursday evening. 

“Resisting the occupation army is a purely Iraqi decision, and no outside party has any involvement in it," he added, referring to Iran.

Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, also denied the involvement of what he called “resistance factions” in attacks on the US embassy, stressing that it is not "part of the response equation."

Resistance factions do not want to target the embassy in retaliation for US airstrikes against Iran-backed fighters on the Iraq-Syria border, he said in a tweet on Thursday.

“The resistance factions will not use Katyusha rockets, which are known not to hit targets precisely, but rather hit near residential areas,” Khazali added, saying they have “precision-guided weapons” as “demonstrated by the operations carried out by factions in recent days.”

Both militias are Iran-backed factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic).

Three Katyusha rockets targeted Baghdad’s Green Zone early on Thursday, the latest in a spate of rocket and drone attacks on sites hosting American forces in Iraq and Syria.

None of the three rockets landed near the embassy. One fell near the headquarters of the National Security Agency, one hit a square, and the third landed in a residential neighbourhood, where it damaged one car.

An explosives-laden drone hit Erbil International Airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops, late on Tuesday, causing a fire at the site but no casualties or physical damage. It came less than 24 hours after an “airborne threat” was shot down over the US embassy in Baghdad on Monday.

The spokesperson of an Iran-backed militia Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, denied involvement in the Tuesday drone attack on Erbil International Airport in an interview with Rudaw, saying the militia has no interest in war.

However, the militia’s commander, Abu Alaa al-Walae, told The Associated Press that they will retaliate against America, and it will be “an open war”.

“We want it to be an operation in which everyone says they have taken revenge from the Americans,” Walae told AP on Tuesday. “It will be a qualitative operation (that could come) from the air, the sea, along Iraq’s border, in the region or anywhere. It’s an open war.”

Attacks on Iraqi bases, especially those hosting US troops, have increased since the US assassinated top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad in January 2020. There have been almost 30 attacks on or near bases in Iraq and Syria since the beginning of 2021, according to data collated by Rudaw English.

On Thursday, Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw called on the US-led coalition and the federal government to take action following a recent attack on Erbil International Airport.

"The coalition forces and Iraq's federal government are responsible; the attacks won't end by releasing a statement or condemning the act. They are responsible for Iraqi airspace," he said in a press conference on Thursday.

The French foreign ministry on Thursday condemned “in the strongest terms” recent attacks on Erbil International Airport and Anbar’s Ain al-Asad airbase, saying Paris “recalls its concern for the sovereignty of Iraq and stability of the Kurdistan Region.”