Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi armed group affiliated with Iran, has suspended military operations against US troops in the region, citing the desire to avoid embarrassment to the Iraqi government.
The decision comes after three US troops were killed in a drone attack near the Jordan-Syria border, which the Pentagon claimed carried the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah, albeit no final assessment had been made.
Kataib Hezbollah, founded after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, is one of the elite Iraqi armed factions closest to Iran. It is the most powerful armed faction in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of extreme Shi’ite armed groups that has claimed over 150 strikes on US forces since the Gaza war began in early October.
Iraq’s government is supported by Iranian-allied parties and militias, but not directly by the hardline groups that have been firing on US troops, according to Western and Iraqi officials.
Baghdad criticized the attacks while stating that regional escalation would continue as long as the Gaza war lasted.
On Monday, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed that the United States would take all necessary actions to defend its troops following the deadly drone attack, despite President Joe Biden’s insistence that it was not seeking a war with Iran.
