Iraqi pro-Iran militias threatened to target the interests of European countries that join US-Israeli strikes on Iran after a senior Kataeb Hezbollah officer was killed in an airstrike south of Baghdad.
Ali Hassan al-Furayji, a senior deputy in Kataeb Hezbollah, was killed along with two other operatives in the overnight strike, the group’s leader Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said. In a statement issued by the umbrella group Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the militias warned that any European country joining the “Zionist-American” campaign against Iran would see its forces and interests in Iraq and across the region become “legitimate targets.”
“The criminal Zionist-American enemy continues rallying its allies against the free people of the Islamic Republic and the region, begging some of the European countries to join,” the statement said. “Any of those countries that do join in this battle… their forces and interests in Iraq and the region will be subject to legitimate targeting,” it added.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned that any US ground incursion into Iran would result in heavy casualties, saying Iranian forces were ready to confront American troops. “Some US officials have said they intend to enter Iran with several thousand troops in a ground operation,” Larijani wrote on X.
“The brave sons of Imam Khomeini and Imam Khamenei are waiting for you to disgrace those wicked American officials with thousands killed and captured,” he added. “The land of Iran is not a place for the dance of the damned,” Larijani said in the message addressed to US officials.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, claimed on Thursday that the United States is facing shortages in its air defence stockpiles. “The Americans have been forced to prioritize [the targets they attack] because of shortages in their air defence stockpiles,” Ghalibaf wrote on X. He warned that leaving US interests and soldiers exposed would have consequences beyond the Middle East. “The consequences of leaving US interests and soldiers defenseless will not be limited to the Middle East,” he said.
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