An Iraqi militia with close ties to Iran has threatened to attack Americans in the Middle East should the United States aid Israel. The warning came after the United States moved the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group off the coast of Israel and President Joe Biden made a speech condemning the terrorist group Hamas.
Kataib Hezbollah made the threat on Tuesday. The group said that its “missiles, drones and special forces” were prepared to “strike the American enemy in its bases and disrupt its interests if it intervenes in this battle.”
Kataib Hezbollah Brigades Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said that the group had a “duty to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians.”
The official also praised the actions of Hamas, which murdered more than 1,100 civilians during the weekend attacks.
Another Iraqi Islamist militant group said that if the United States aided Israel, then “we will consider all American targets legitimate.”
Iran is a chief sponsor of a number of Islamist groups across the Middle East, including Hamas. It is also a chief backer of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, which murdered 241 American Marines in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.
So far the Islamic Republic has denied any involvement in the attack against the Jewish state, but praised it.
Despite the denial, officials from both Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas stated that the Islamic Republic aided in the planning of the attack for several months.
One report states that Iran formally signed off on the attack last week in Lebanon.
The White House has stated that Iran has supported such groups as Hamas in the past, but did not formally accuse Iran of direct involvement in this past weekend’s events.
During a speech Tuesday, Biden condemned Hamas and the attacks. However, he did not mention Iran by name.
#Iran & Axis of Resistance
Members of Iran’s Axis of Resistance have articulated the thresholds at which they would intervene in the war against #Israel. https://t.co/6l3sRkVsR2
The top leadership from Iranian-backed Iraqi militias Kataib Seyyed ol Shohada, Ashab al Kahf, Asaib… https://t.co/eoIi7hgz52 pic.twitter.com/8vGDWJBAhi
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) October 12, 2023
The United States has a history with the group. In 2020, former President Donald Trump killed a senior leader of the group in the same airstrike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
