An influential Iraqi armed group on Saturday evening called the sanctions recently adopted by the United States against it and another pro-Iranian movement, accused of being responsible for attacks against US troops in Iraq and Syria, “ridiculous”. .
The Hezbollah Brigades also indicated that these attacks by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” were part of an “attrition strategy”, according to a statement from its spokesman, Abu Ali al-Askari, published on its Telegram account.
Washington on Friday sanctioned seven people linked to two pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups, the Hezbollah Brigades and the Sayyed al-Shuhada Brigades.
The U.S. Treasury Department said the Hezbollah Brigades was “trained, funded and supported” by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and “is behind a recent wave of attacks against the United States and its partners in Iraq and Syria.” after the terrible attacks of Hamas against Israel”.
“The inclusion of certain brothers in the so-called ‘US sanctions list’ is ridiculous,” Abu Ali al-Askari said, believing that “these actions will not deter our brave fighters.”
The number of attacks against US forces and the international anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq and Syria has increased since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack on the ground Israeli by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
US forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked more than 55 times since mid-October, leaving dozens of US personnel with minor injuries, according to the Pentagon.
Most of these rocket or drone attacks have been claimed by a group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
“The calculated strikes of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (…) are carried out according to a strategy of attrition of the enemy, choosing the level of escalation of the operations, their trajectory and their planning”, says Abou Ali al-Askari. .
The United States has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria, present to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State group.
The Hezbollah Brigades, or Kataeb Hezbollah, has been considered a “terrorist organization” by the US State Department since 200
