Who is Kataib Hezbollah, the group blamed for killing US troops?
FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of the Pentagon (lower left), Potomac River (C) and Washington Monument in Washington August 31, 2010. The Pentagon said the United States believes the attack that killed three US troops on the Jordanian-Syrian border has the “footprints” of Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah. REUTERS/Jason Reed
BAGHDAD — The United States believes the attack that killed three US troops on the Jordanian-Syrian border has the “footprints” of Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, the Pentagon said.
Who is the Kataib Hezbollah?
Founded in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah is one of the elite Iraqi armed factions closest to Iran.
It is the most powerful armed faction in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline Shi’ite armed groups that have claimed more than 150 attacks on U.S. forces since the Gaza war began.
After its founding, the group quickly developed a reputation for deadly attacks against military and diplomatic targets in the 2000s, using a mixture of sniper, rocket, and mortar attacks and roadside bombs.
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The United States designated it as a terrorist organization in 2009.
Dual Iraqi-Iranian citizen Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis led it until he was killed in a US drone strike in 2020 along with Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad’s international airport.
The group has a translational Shi’ite ideology that views the borders between Iraq, Syria and Lebanon as Western constructs. It views US troops in Iraq as foreign occupiers and has called for their forceful expulsion.
It fought alongside other Shi’ite militias against mostly Sunni rebels during Syria’s civil war and has continued to operate in Syria since.
A shadowy group with no announced leadership structure, Kataib Hezbollah has thousands of fighters and an arsenal of drones, rockets and short-range ballistic missiles, Iraqi officials and members of the group said.
The US has struck Kataib Hezbollah positions, bases and training and logistics hubs several times over the years.
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On January 24, it struck several targets in Kataib Hezbollah’s stronghold in Jurf Al-Sakhar some 50 kilometers south of Baghdad in retaliation for drone and missile attacks.
It forms several battalions in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a grouping of armed factions originally set up to fight the Islamic State in 2014 that was subsequently recognized as an official security force.
Fighters receive state salaries, and Kataib Hezbollah members, including some designated terrorists by the US, hold senior positions in the PMF.
While it is technically under the command of Iraq’s prime minister as part of the PMF, the group often operates outside the chain of command and has defied and challenged government statements calling for an end to attacks on US forces.
Though it does not publicly confirm or deny links, the group is widely seen to have fielded a political party for the first time in the 2021 elections, winning several parliamentary seats.
