BAGHDAD: New strikes have hit a military base in Iraq housing the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group, while in the Kurdish city of Irbil air defenses intercepted drone attacks.
“Three strikes hit Jurf Al-Nasr,” a Kataeb Hezbollah source told AFP, referring to a military base that serves as one of the main bastions of the powerful armed group, which has been targeted several times since the start of the Israel-US campaign against Iran.
Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, said it did not want to be dragged into the war.
But it has not been spared.
From the early hours of the campaign against Iran, strikes blamed on the US and Israel hit Iran-backed groups, which have vowed retaliation.
On Sunday, nine Iran-backed fighters were killed in separate strikes, including five from Kataeb Hezbollah.
The group announced it will bury its fighters Monday.
The Kataeb Hezbollah source told AFP that four fighters were killed in an attack near the Syria-Iraq border and another in a strike on the Samawa region in Iraq’s south.
Several Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, including Kataeb Hezbollah, have said they will not stay “neutral” and would defend the Islamic republic.
A shadowy group called Saraya Awliyaa Al-Dam (Guardians of Blood), which claims to be part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said on Telegram it was behind early Monday morning drone attacks on Baghdad airport.
Since the start of the US-Israel campaign on Iran, drones have repeatedly been intercepted over Irbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US-led coalition troops and a major US consulate complex.
Loud bangs were heard Monday near Irbil airport, where foreign troops are deployed, an AFP journalist said.
Earlier Monday, an AFP photographer said air defense systems downed drones near the airport.