'We will target US bases if Washington intervenes': Iraqi resistance
Multiple Iraqi resistance factions and religious leaders are voicing support for the historic Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
Iraqi resistance faction Kataib Hezbollah issued a stern warning on 11 October, threatening to strike at US bases in Iraq and surrounding areas if the US intervened in the ongoing war between various Palestinian factions and Israel.
They, alongside other Iraqi groups and religious leaders, have voiced strong support for the Palestinians as they continue Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
“Since the first hours, we have been in direct and indirect contact with the Palestinian resistance,” Kataib Hezbollah's leader Sayyid al-Shuhada, Abu Alaa al-Walai, said in a statement.
“If the US intervenes, we will intervene directly; all US presence in the region will be legitimate targets for the resistors inside and outside Iraq,” Walai added. “The entire axis of resistance will intervene, and the entire region will catch fire, and we are waiting. These are messages in multiple directions, so let the other read them however he wants.”
The Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) has also voiced support for the Palestinians.
“Operation of the Al-Aqsa Flood is the decisive response and the voice rejecting all the attacks of the Zionist occupation on Al-Aqsa Mosque and our people in occupied Jerusalem,” PMU officials said.
Shia Muslim clerics in the nation have also been vocal about their support for the operation against Israel, with Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Sistani calling on all Muslims to aid the Palestinians.
“We call on all Muslims to come to the assistance of the Muslim people of Palestine [and] respond to their loud cries for help,” says Sistani.
Others include disgraced cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Iraq’s Sadrist Movement, who said that the Palestinian operation blackened the face of the Israeli forces as it caught them by surprise.
Sadr’s speech also included words of shame and contempt for other Arab leaders who “stood idle regarding the situation in Gaza, even when its people were blocked from receiving water and food."
Iraqi resistance forces have been closely eyeing the ongoing situation in Palestine and have been giving since the start of the operation.