Iraq’s Kata'ib Hezbollah: Our fingers on trigger until all Americans expelled

A major Iraqi anti-terror group says its forces will remain prepared with "their fingers on the trigger" until complete expulsion of all American occupation forces from the country.

Kata'ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) made the announcement in a Sunday statement. It is part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which is an umbrella group for resistance movements in Iraq. The PMU has been recognized by the government in Baghdad as a legitimate force to defend the country against security threats, especially those posed by terrorist groups.

Kata'ib Hezbollah affirmed in its statement that the same resistance fighters who managed to defeat the US-made Daesh Takfiri terrorist group will maintain their war preparedness until Americans are expelled from Iraq.

Back in 2017, the PMU played a decisive role in helping the Iraqi army defeat the Daesh terrorist outfit, which Kata'ib Hezbollah described as a creation of the United States and its allies.

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"The same Iraqi people who supported the country, and humiliated and defeated the United States and its creation Daesh, will keep their fingers on the trigger until expulsion of the occupiers," Kata'ib Hezbollah said.

The terror outfit had established a major presence in Iraq and the neighboring Syria in 2014 as Washington was running out of excuses to extend its own military presence across West Asia. The US and its allies then rolled into the two Arab countries under the pretext of uprooting terrorists shortly after Daesh's emergence. The Daesh terrorists, however, rapidly overran great swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria, slaying thousands of civilians and security forces.

Kata'ib Hezbollah described the collapse of the Iraqi security forces in the face of terrorists as "a conspiracy that was hatched by the US and its [regional] tools."

That situation continued until Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a fatwa (religious decree), urging Iraqis to take up arms against the Daesg terrorist group. His decree led to the formation of the PMU, also known by its Arabic name as al-Hashd al-Sha'bi.

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The fatwa "issued at the height of confrontations [with Daesh] greatly changed the equation and caused a great tide of Hashd al-Sha'bi's volunteers to flood the battlefront," Kata'ib Hezbollah said.

It added that the Iraqi government requested help from the resistance fighters after the fall of the country's northern and western provinces to terrorists and their advances towards the capital Baghdad.

Kata'ib Hezbollah has joined a regional drive in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon to target US and Israeli interests in the region since Israel launched a full-scale aggression on the Gaza Strip in early October with direct support from the US.

It has warned of an escalation in attacks on US forces in Iraq if Israel continues its brutal aggression on Gaza.

Iraqi resistance forces have launched more than 60 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Gaza onslaught.

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