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A militia group that the Biden administration blamed for the lethal assault on U.S. forces stationed at a shadowy base in Jordan stated Tuesday that it might cease focusing on American troops in Iraq, a transfer that would clear the way in which for the withdrawal of U.S. troopers greater than 20 years after the 2003 invasion.
“We announce the suspension of navy and safety operations in opposition to the occupation forces—in an effort to forestall embarrassment to the Iraqi authorities,” Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, the chief of Kata’ib Hezbollah, stated in a press release. “Our brothers within the Axis, particularly within the Islamic Republic of Iran, they have no idea how we conduct our Jihad, and so they typically object to the strain and escalation in opposition to the American occupation forces in Iraq and Syria.”
Pentagon officers have particularly named Kata’ib Hezbollah as one of many teams behind the drone assault on U.S. troops in Jordan over the weekend. U.S. President Joe Biden and administration officers have stated they in the end maintain Iran answerable for the assault, accusing that nation’s authorities of funding and arming Kata’ib Hezbollah and different militia teams within the area.
Kata’ib Hezbollah’s chief stated in his assertion that the group has launched assaults on U.S. forces at its “personal will, and with none interference from others.” Biden administration officers have admitted they haven’t any proof that Iran directed the Jordan assault.
Biden advised reporters on Tuesday that he has determined how to reply to the Jordan assault however declined to offer any particulars.
On the query of Iran’s position within the deaths of three U.S. servicemen, President Biden stated “I do maintain them accountable within the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the individuals who did it.” Does he really feel the identical means concerning the 26,000 deaths brought on by U.S. weapons in Gaza?
— William Hartung (@WilliamHartung) January 31, 2024
Requested throughout a media briefing about Kata’ib Hezbollah’s assertion, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder stated he doesn’t “have a particular remark to offer, aside from actions communicate louder than phrases.”
The drone assault on American forces in Jordan got here a day after the U.S. and high-ranking Iraqi officers held their first spherical of formal talks on the method of eradicating the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops nonetheless deployed within the nation.
Analysts have argued that the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria has dramatically elevated the probability of a broader regional warfare. The Intercept‘s Ken Klippenstein reported Tuesday that U.S. navy personnel in Iraq obtained a memo this month instructing them to be “on standby to ahead deploy to assist troops within the case of on-ground U.S. involvement within the Israel-Hamas warfare.”
Hisham al-Rikabi, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, toldCNN on Tuesday that Kata’ib Hezbollah’s vow to droop its assaults on U.S. forces “is the results of efforts made by” Iraq’s authorities to “make sure the smoothness of the negotiation course of and in an effort to full the withdrawal [of U.S. troops] from Iraq.”
The New York Timesreported Tuesday that Kata’ib Hezbollah had beforehand ignored the Iraqi authorities’s requests to cease attacking U.S. forces, “however as soon as the assault in Jordan on Sunday took American lives, Mr. Sudani demanded an entire halt from Kata’ib Hezbollah.”
“Mr. Sudani reached out on to Iran, based on a navy strategist for the Revolutionary Guards who works carefully with the Axis teams in Iraq,” the Instances added.
Erik Sperling, government director of Simply International Coverage, stated in response to al-Rikabi’s feedback that, “if true, that is the least unhealthy final result.”
“Iraqi militias comply with cease focusing on hundreds of U.S. troops, who then may be safely faraway from hurt’s means, greater than 20 years after the disastrous Iraq warfare,” Sperling wrote on social media. “Hope we’ll see U.S. troops in Syria introduced dwelling too.”
Home and regional strain on the U.S. to withdraw its forces from Iraq has grown since Israel started its newest assault on the Gaza Strip in October following a lethal Hamas-led assault. Militia teams, together with Kata’ib Hezbollah, have launched upwards of 160 assaults on American troops in Iraq and Syria since October 7, and the Biden administration has retaliated with airstrikes in each international locations—infuriating the Iraqi authorities and fueling issues a couple of full-scale regional warfare.
The Jordan assault took these issues to new ranges as warhawks within the U.S. Congress demanded that Biden retaliate with strikes inside Iran. Progressive lawmakers, for his or her half, have referred to as for a right away cease-fire within the Gaza Strip, warning that additional navy motion would solely exacerbate the regional disaster.
Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, stated Tuesday that “if any celebration assaults Iran’s territory, or its pursuits or residents overseas, it will likely be met with a decisive response.”
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