Fourteen group fighters were in Iraqi force custody, with investigation against them ongoing, according to an Iraqi Joint Operation Command statement released Friday afternoon.
"The Iraqi counter terrorism forces conducted a raid on the group [Kataib Hezbollah] to detain armed groups who have been targeting Iraqi military bases, governmental institutions, and embassies for years," their statement reads.
Iraq's counter terrorism forces conducted the raid to detain suspects who are "wanted by the Iraqi judicial council," the statement added.
Kataib Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed militia falling under the umbrella of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a predominantly Shiite militia network known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi.
The group has repeatedly threatened and carried out rocket attacks against US forces.
Following the raid, senior Kataib Hezbollah commander Abu Ali al-Askari issued a scathing attack on Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who is also commander-in-chief of Iraq's armed forces, for what he claimed was performance of US commands.
“Kadhimi once again followed his American master’s orders, and implemented another plan of theirs in Iraq, after he was involved in the assassination of the two martyrs [Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis], while the fighters of the Hashd immediately gathered and released their fellow fighters in custody,” Askari published on his official Telegram channel on Friday, using a shortened version of the Arabic name for the PMF.
So far, no statement or comments have been issued by the US-led coalition forces in Iraq. However, a coalition spokesman denied that any of the detained were handed over to the US military, after a government official claimed three had been.
Following months of heightened tensions between the US and Iran, rocket attacks on US infrastructure and personnel in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and elsewhere in Iraq have become increasingly frequent.
On December 27, a rocket attack on the K-1 military base in Kirkuk, widely blamed on Kataib Hezbollah, killed a US civilian contractor and injured other personnel.
The US responded with airstrikes on Kataib Hezbollah targets on December 29, killing 25 of the militia’s fighters. A few days later, supporters of Kataib Hezbollah stormed the US embassy compound in Baghdad.
This was followed on January 3 by a US drone strike on Baghdad airport, killing Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and PMF deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Iran responded on January 8 with a barrage of missiles targeting Iraqi bases hosting US troops.
The deadliest rocket attack was conducted on March 11, in which more than a dozen Katyusha rockets targeted Taji military base, around 27 km north of Baghdad, killing two US personnel (one contractor and one soldier) and a Briton, in which Kataib Hezbollah militia was accused for the attack.
Most recently on March 14, Kataib Hezbollah targeted Taji military base in a rare daytime attack with more than 30 Katyusha rockets, wounding three coalition troops and two Iraqis.
The US has set up Patriot air defense batteries to Ain al-Asad military base in Anbar province and as well as to Erbil.
The Iraqi government has long promised to capture the groups behind the attacks.
Friday’s raid comes at a time when Baghdad is planning to kick off the second round of US-Iraq strategic talks in Washington with the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
The first round of the dialogue on June 11 produced an agreement to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq in the coming months, according to a joint statement by both the US administration and Iraqi government.
US forces have withdrawn from several Iraqi bases in recent months, which they say is part of a general repositioning in response to successes in the campaign to defeat ISIS and to protect personnel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the space of a month, the US-led coalition handed over control of six military bases to the ISF, including Abu Ghraib near Baghdad, K1 in Kirkuk, al-Qaim near the Syrian border, Qayyarah in western Iraq, al-Sqoor in Mosul, and al-Taqaddum in Anbar.
Updated June 27, 2020 at 5:31 pm
