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.
New strikes hit Iraq base housing Iran-backed fighters: faction source
https://arab.news/m22kp
New strikes hit Iraq base housing Iran-backed fighters: faction source
- 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
Refugees, migrants in Lebanon find rare sanctuary from Israeli strikes in Beirut church
- Beirut church offers safe haven for displaced migrants, refugees
- Many refugees lived through 2024 war, but are now more vulnerable
BEIRUT: When Israeli strikes began pummelling Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Monday, Sudanese refugee Ridina Muhammad and her family had no choice but to flee home on foot, eventually reaching the only shelter that would accept them: a church.
Eight months pregnant, Muhammad, 32, walked with her husband and three children for hours in the dark streets until they found a car to take them to the St. Joseph Tabaris Parish, which has opened its doors to refugees and migrants.
They are among 300,000 people displaced across Lebanon this week by heavy Israeli strikes, launched in response to a rocket and drone attackinto Israel by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Just 100,000 of the displaced are in government shelters. Others are staying with relatives or sleeping in the streets. But migrants and refugees say government shelters were never an option for them, saying they were turned away during the last war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Muhammad’s oldest daughter, now seven, stopped speaking after the 2024 war.
This time, they are even more vulnerable: their home was destroyed in this week’s strikes and Muhammad is due to give birth at the end of the month.
“I don’t know if there’s a doctor or not, but I’m really scared about it because I haven’t prepared any clothes for the baby, nor arranged a hospital, and I don’t know where to go,” she told Reuters as her younger daughter leaned against her pregnant belly.
Muhammad said she was registered with the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) but had not received support.
“Us, as refugees, why did we register with the UN, if they are not helping us in the most difficult times?” she said.
Dalal Harb, a spokesperson for UNHCR Lebanon, said the agency had mobilized but reaching everyone immediately was extremely challenging given the scale and speed of displacement. The UNHCR operation in Lebanon is currently only around 14 percent funded, she said.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), which helped the church host displaced in 2024, is doing so again.
Michael Petro, JRS’ Emergency Shelter Director, said the church was full within the first day of strikes, with 140 people from South Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and other countries sheltering there.
“There are many, many more people coming than there were in 2024, and we have fewer and fewer places to put them,” he said.
Petro said he was told weeks ago that government shelters would be open to migrants if war erupted.
But when the strikes began and even Lebanese struggled to find shelter, the policy seemed to change, he said.
“We’re hearing from hotlines up to government officials and ministries that migrants are not welcome,” Petro said.
Lebanon’s Minister for Social Affairs Haneen Sayyed did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Sayyed said Beirut shelters were full.
When Israeli strikes began, Othman Yahyeh Dawood, a 41-year-old Sudanese man, put his two young sons on his motorcycle.
They drove 75 kilometers (46 miles) from the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh to St. Joseph’s, where they had sheltered in 2024.
“I know the area is safe and there are people who will welcome us,” he said.
“We don’t know where to go; there’s war there (in the south), war here (in Beirut), war in Sudan, and nowhere else to go,” he said.
