Abu Ali al-Askari, a senior official in the Kataib Hezbollah faction, vowed in a statement on 9 December that the Iraqi resistance would continue to confront US forces in Iraq until “the last soldier” is expelled from the country.
“Our jihadist operations against the American occupation will continue until the last soldier is removed from Iraq,” Askari said.
The US embassy in Baghdad, which was targeted in a rocket attack on 8 December, “remains an advanced base for managing military and security operations” against Iraq, the official added.
“Yesterday’s operations mark the start of a new phase of confrontations, and the coming days will determine the intensity of our responses. Any foolishness from the American enemy will be met with severe retaliatory measures and an expansion of operations,” he went on to say.
Aside from the embassy attack, eleven drone and missile attacks were carried out against several US bases in Iraq and Syria on Friday, 8 December. The attacks were claimed by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq coalition of factions, formed in October to confront US troops in support of Palestine.
“In response to the crimes committed by the enemy against our people in Gaza, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq yesterday targeted the American occupation bases in Iraq and Syria with eleven operations, striking them with dozens of missiles and drones,” the coalition said in a statement on 9 December.
These attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria have been ongoing since the Gaza-Israel war began in October and were paused only briefly during the seven-day truce before resuming with intensity.
US warplanes have carried out several rounds of airstrikes in Iraq recently in response to the continuous attacks. Five Iraqi resistance fighters were killed in a US strike in Kirkuk on 3 December.
Meanwhile, other elements of the regional Axis of Resistance are stepping up their activity, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement.
Hezbollah has widened its range of Israeli targets near the Lebanese border, and continues to carry out daily attacks on military sites and gatherings of soldiers.
Yemen also said that it would expand the maritime operations it has been carrying out recently against Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and elsewhere.
Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Yahya Saree announced on 9 December that it will prevent the passage of any ship of any nationality headed for Israel in the Red and Arabian seas, if food and medicine do not enter the Gaza Strip.
Yemeni Information Minister in the Ansarallah-affiliated government in Sanaa, Daifallah al-Shami, told Al-Mayadeen that vessels “shipping goods to the occupying entity will be targeted.”
“We cannot allow ships to transport medicine and food to the occupation while our people in Palestine are prohibited from doing so,” he added. The decision comes in response to the US veto of the UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.