Kataib Hezbollah: No Line Will Limit Our Strikes
The Iran-backed group says that after Iran’s supreme leader’s order, no border or geography will constrain it, and that US forces anywhere are on its target list
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Iran-backed Iraqi armed group Kata’ib Hezbollah said that after the supreme leader’s decisive order, no line or geography will hinder its strikes, and that US military personnel anywhere in the world are on its list of legitimate targets.
The group said the blood of the martyrs, of Gaza’s children and of the innocent schoolchildren of Minab will never be subject to the passing of time or “artificial borders.” It said its pursuit of justice will be decided not in “hollow organizations” but on the battlefield, with the “language of fire and Sijjil,” and that it would rob US military personnel of their peace of mind. Sejjil is the name of an Iranian ballistic missile.
The statement points to a directive attributed to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on October 31, which ordered the armed forces to be ready to respond to any attack “immediately, effectively, and with no geographical restriction,” according to RFE/RL. He also ordered the Revolutionary Guards to update their target list to include all US and Israeli assets within reach, according to reports. Iranian officials have since said that could include US bases in Europe, and an Iranian commander said Iran’s armed forces will respond to any threat without geographic limitation. The minab reference is to the February 28 strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, on the first day of the war, in which at least 160 people, mostly children, were killed, according to reports. Iranian officials blame US-Israeli strikes.
The group is part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the umbrella of Iran-aligned factions that carried out repeated drone and rocket attacks on US interests in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region after the war began.
Kata’ib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada have refused to disarm under Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s plan to bring all weapons under state control by June 30, 2027.
The group has said it will not discuss its weapons while foreign forces remain in the Kurdistan Region. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused it last month of involvement in a drone attack that shut Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, which the group denied.
The statement came as Washington weighs possible new strikes on Iran, after limited US strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday, and as US officials debate whether to resume operations. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran would respond forcefully to any strikes.