Baghdad (AFP) – After a drone attack killed three American soldiers in Jordan on Sunday near the Syrian and Iraq borders, Washington immediately accused “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq”.
In Iraq, these factions are also affiliated with Hashed al-Shaabi, mainly pro-Iran former paramilitaries now integrated into Iraq’s armed forces.
They have major political influence. Their rhetoric highlights hostility to the United States and their role in what Iran calls “the axis of resistance” against Israel, a close ally of the United States.
Washington promised a “very consequential” response to the deadly attack, which Iran said it had nothing to do with. Who are these groups and what are their links to power?
The attack in Jordan followed the same methods as the rocket and drone strikes carried out since mid-October by pro-Iran groups against American soldiers and those from the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group (IS) in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
These attacks are a byproduct of the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas being waged in the Gaza Strip since October 7. They raise the spectre of broader conflict.
Most of the 165 attacks so far have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of armed groups affiliated with the Hashed.
They say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians and want the departure of the roughly 2,500 American troops who are in Iraq as part of an international coalition against the Islamic State group (IS) jihadists.
In reprisal for attacks against its troops, Washington has targeted the Kataeb Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, another Hashed faction, with its own military strikes.
Both groups have said they participate in “Resistance” attacks, but late Tuesday Kataeb Hezbollah announced it was suspending attacks on US troops “to avoid any embarrassment for the Iraqi government”.
The United States has also accused the Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada of attacks against American troops.
Classified as “terrorists” by Washington, the groups claim membership in “the axis of resistance”, along with Yemen’s Huthi rebels, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
They have fighters supporting the government in neighbouring Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
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