Resurging Iran Proxy in Iraq, Neutralized by Trump, Promises ‘Painful’ Terror Attacks Against U.S.

Members of an Iraqi Shiite militant group attend the funeral of a fighter with the Kataib
AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
Frances Martel

Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH, or the Hezbollah Brigades), an Iranian proxy terrorist organization in Iraq, promised “painful” terrorist onslaughts against American forces in the country on Wednesday in an attempt to support the Gaza-based jihadist terror group Hamas.

KH, while recognized as a terrorist organization, is formally under the wing of the Iraqi armed forces as part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shiite militias that rose to prominence fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) “caliphate.” Following the fall of the “caliphate” in 2017, the PMF’s most powerful members turned their attention towards fighting the American and Kurdish forces largely responsible for the destruction of ISIS. KH is an ally of, but a separate organization from, the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.

KH was one of the most powerful members of the PMF but had lost much of its ability to engage in terrorism in 2020, following the demise of its founder and leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Then-President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike in Iraq to eliminate both Muhandis and Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force foreign terror unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Prior to the airstrike, Muhandis had developed a prolific record of terrorist assaults, particularly on Western embassies. The KH founder was implicated in attempted bombings of the French and American embassies in Iraq in 1983 and a string of bombings in neighboring Kuwait, among other attacks.

Shortly before his death, intelligence suggested that Muhadis helped plan an attempted siege of the American embassy in Baghdad in December 2019, reportedly organized in response to Trump airstrikes against KH. On that occasion, a mob of thousands of KH supporters vandalized the embassy, scribbling “Soleimani is our commander” on its walls.

Under current President Joe Biden, both the IRGC and the Hezbollah Brigades have regrouped. In the aftermath of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7 – which left an estimated 1,200 dead and featured such atrocities as gang rape, infanticide, torture, and mass abduction – the Iran-backed groups have initiated campaigns against Israel and America to support Hamas. In Iraq, IRGC and KH units have targeted American troops and, on at least one occasion, bombed the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Erbil, killing random civilians including a child ten days shy of her first birthday.

Biden responded to the attacks with a flurry of airstrikes allegedly targeting the Hezbollah Brigades this week.

“Iraq’s resistance will keep supporting Gaza and the Israeli-occupied Palestine while conducting painful attacks on US occupation forces until they are driven out of Iraq and the region,” KH said in its statement on Wednesday, intended as a reply to the airstrikes, according to the Iranian state propaganda outlet PressTV.

The Hezbollah Brigades said that Biden’s airstrikes required it and similar PMF groups to “expand the scope of their retaliatory strikes from the military bases used by the US occupation forces to their interests in Iraq and the entire region.”

Iran’s proxies in Iraq began escalating attacks on the American presence in the country in October to support Hamas following the atrocities of October 7. Some groups, believed to be tied to the PMF, rebranded as the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” (IRI) and took responsibility for several bombings in both Iraq and Syria. KH also took responsibility for separate attacks in Iraq.

As of January 19, the Pentagon confirmed “nearly 140” Iran-backed attacks on U.S. troops in both Iraq and Syria. Another 100 attacks occurred between October 17 and December 15, 2023.

Biden ordered a new round of airstrikes on KH on Wednesday. According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the regional military division, the strikes targeted “KH headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack UAV capabilities.”

“We do not seek to escalate conflict in the region. We are fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people and our facilities. We call on these groups and their Iranian sponsors to immediately cease these attacks,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said following the bombings.

A report published by the news organization Reuters on Wednesday suggested that, even as Biden ordered airstrikes in Iraq, he has greenlit the beginning of talks with the Iran-friendly government in Baghdad for the retreat of American military forces from Iraq. Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources, that the Biden administration sent a letter to Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein suggesting negotiations for a U.S. withdrawal. The sources claimed that Biden had previously demanded Baghdad move to end the KH and other Iran-backed terrorist attacks on American troops, but had since “dropped” those conditions.

Biden previously presided over the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021, which resulted in the immediate collapse of the legitimate Afghan government and the return to power of the Taliban terrorist organization.

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