Iraqi militias threaten to respond if Israel starts war against Lebanon

The pro-Iran militias of Iraq threatened this Sunday to increase their attacks against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East if the Jewish state launches a war against the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, amid fears that Lebanon will become a second front in the war in Gaza.

“If the Zionists carry out their threat, the pace and type of operations against them will increase, and the interests of the American criminal enemy in Iraq and in the region they will be a legitimate target,” said the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee, which encompasses the country’s most powerful pro-Iran militias.

The group indicated in a statement that it held a meeting “Following threats by the Zionist-American enemy to launch a comprehensive war against the Lebanon and his brave resistance,” in reference to Hezbollah, which since last October 8 has been engaged in intense border crossfire with Israel.

The statement did not specify what type of actions they will carry out, although these militias are one of the main members of the informal alliance Axis of Resistance, led by Iran and which includes Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels of Yemen and the Islamist group Hamas, among others.

Some of the Iraqi militias have launched hundreds of attacks against US military targets in Iraq and Syria since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, but these ceased after an attack launched by these groups killed three US soldiers on the Syrian-Syrian border. Jordan in January.

However, they have continued to sporadically launch drones and rockets at Israeli territory and, since early June, have begun carrying out joint operations with Yemen’s Houthis against targets in northern Israel, although these have been intercepted.

Furthermore, the Committee indicated that “massacres and genocide” in Gaza, “it demands that we maintain firm positions against the countries that are in favour of normalisation,” referring to the Arab nations that maintain relations with Israel, such as Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In this sense, he requested “not supporting them with Iraqi oil and money” and was against the oil pipeline that connects the Iraqi city of Basra with the Jordanian city of Aqabawithout specifying the actions they would take against the infrastructure.

Israel and Hezbollah The two are locked in their worst fighting since their 2006 war, raising fears of a large-scale Israeli operation against southern Lebanon.