Kata’ib Hezbollah: US Baghdad Embassy Serving as Military, Security Center

Abu Ali al-Askari, a senior security official with Kata'ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades), made the remarks in a statement on Sunday, emphasizing that the diplomatic mission serves as a major base where military and security operations against Iraqi people are being planned.

While the embassy acts as a den of espionage, some Iraqi politicians prefer to overlook the matter for the sake of their positions. They simply declare that such buildings are diplomatic installations and must be protected under international conventions, Askari argued.

“Shame on such politicians and their interests, which are seriously detrimental to the country. These individuals tend to condone the fact of maintaining their posts. The fact of the matter is that these positions will disappear once invaders are driven out,” the senior Kata’ib Hezbollah official said.

The statement comes as approximately seven mortar rounds landed in the US embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack early on Friday.

The attacks were the most recorded against US forces in the region in a single day since mid-October when Resistance forces started targeting US-occupied bases in Iraq and neighboring Syria over Washington's unqualified support of Israel in its bloody onslaught on Gaza.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, in a call with Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, condemned the attacks and singled out Kata’ib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba groups for the recent targeting of US servicemen.

Last week, the leader of Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba warned that the United States would pay dearly for an attack that killed five members of the Resistance group in the north of Iraq.

Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi said in a statement on December 4 that the US should expect more painful attacks by Iraqi Resistance forces on its bases and interests in the Arab country following an airstrike that killed Nujaba fighters in Kirkuk a day earlier.  

Kaabi said attacks by Iraqi Resistance groups on US forces will continue until they are completely expelled from Iraq.

The attacks by Iraqi Resistance forces are part of a larger regional pattern of anti-US and anti-Israeli action that has repeated itself since Israel launched its aggression against Gaza in early October.

That includes attacks on targets in the occupied territories by the Yemeni army and the Lebanese Resistance group Hezbollah.

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement has also seized a ship believed to be linked to the Israeli regime.

The group has warned that it sees all ships linked to Israel that sail off Yemeni ports as legitimate targets.