Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shiite militia in Iraq, on Tuesday threatened to attack American bases in Iraq and across the Middle East if the U.S. aids Israel against the terrorists of Hamas.
“Our missiles, drones, and special forces are ready to … strike the American enemy in its bases and disrupt its interests if it intervenes in this battle,” said Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, who styles himself as “Hezbollah Brigades Secretary-General,” according to Iran’s PressTV.
Hamidawi said Iraqi Hezbollah, which is distinct from the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah, has a “duty to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians” under Islamic law. He praised the murderers of Hamas for their bloody assault on Israeli civilians.
PressTV quoted another Iraqi militant leader, Akram al-Kaabi of Harakat Hezbollah Nujaba, echoing Hamidawi’s warning and promising a “military response” (i.e. terrorist attack) against any country that intervenes on Israel’s behalf.
“If (the Americans) intervene, we would intervene,” said a third militant boss, Hadi al-Amiri of the Badr Organization. “We will consider all American targets legitimate.”
PressTV, incidentally, described Saturday’s atrocities as merely the “Palestinian Hamas resistance movement” carrying out a “surprise attack dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm” against the “occupying regime.” The Iranian media outlet said nothing about the rapes and murders of children perpetrated by the Hamas savages.
Iraqi government spokesman Basim al-Awadi was on the same wavelength, excusing the depravity of Hamas as a justified response to “longstanding oppression by the Zionist occupation.”
“We urge global intervention to restore Palestinian rights, cautioning against escalation that could destabilize the region, and call for an urgent Arab League meeting on the Palestinian situation,” Awadi said.
Iraq’s influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded “large-scale demonstrations and jihad against Israel,” while Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid stated his unquestioning support for the Palestinians, without a word of criticism for the unspeakable actions of Hamas.
“We hereby reiterate Iraq’s steadfast position on the Palestinian issue, which unequivocally demonstrates our complete support for the Palestinian people in their pursuit of their rightful and legitimate rights,” Rashid said on Saturday.
“We condemn the heinous acts of aggression perpetrated against the Palestinian people. We implore the international community to fulfill its legal and moral obligations in order to attain justice and ensure the legitimate rights of the Palestinian population,” he said.
Kataib Hezbollah (KH), Hamidawi’s outfit, is one of the largest Iran-controlled Shiite militia gangs in Iraq. It was the first Iraqi Shiite militia to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 2009.
Working closely with Iranian terror master Gen. Qassem Soleimani, KH launched a series of rocket attacks against American bases in Iraq in late 2019, killing an American civilian contractor. KH was also instrumental in Soleimani’s aborted plan to attack the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The Trump administration responded with airstrikes that killed over two dozen KH members and then liquidated both Soleimani and KH founder Jamal Jaafar Ebrahimi with a drone strike. Ebrahimi, working under the alias “Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,” was briefly a member of the Iraqi parliament in 2005 before leaving his seat to found his militant organization and organize “resistance cells against the Americans.” He was a close ally of both Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah.
KH is part of the “Popular Mobilization Forces” (PMF), an assemblage of mostly Shiite Iraqi militias nominally deputized by the government in Baghdad to fight the Islamic State incursion. Ebrahimi was the deputy commander of the PMF at the time of his death.
The PMF receives about $2 billion in annual funding from the Iraqi government. It has been implicated in numerous atrocities against Iraqi dissidents, including the use of lethal force to break up anti-government protests.
The PMF, which claimed to include over 160,000 militants at the height of its power, has lately been suffering from factional infighting and a rivalry with the forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, who is jealous of Iran’s influence over Iraqi Shiites.