Exclusive—Iraq militia vows to strike US bases if airspace used to hit Iran

The political chief of a leading Iraqi militia has told Newsweek that U.S. military bases in the region would face new attacks if Israel or the United States used Iraqi territory to strike at Iran.

The comments by Sheikh Ali al-Asadi, head of the Political Council of the Nujaba Movement, also known as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, came in the wake of an unprecedented series of Israeli strikes conducted against Iran late last month in which Iraqi airspace is suspected of being used. Asadi, however, disputed this version of events.

“The information we have is that the entity used Syrian airspace over American bases and from the airspace of Jordan and Saudi Arabia,” Asadi told Newsweek, “and its story that it used Iraqi airspace is to save face and confuse the cards.”

“In general, the entire story is false, as it has been proven that it used ballistic missiles from Palestinian territories, most of which were shot down,” he added. “There were not more than 10 or 20 planes, and the strike was weak.”

Yet he warned that if Iraqi airspace was indeed found to have been used by Israeli warplanes, there would be consequences directed from the entirely of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq coalition, “not only from the Nujaba Movement,” toward the U.S. military presence in the region.

“More importantly,” Asadi said, “if it is proven to us that the Americans allowed the entity to use Iraqi airspace, we will respond to the American bases.”

Iranian and Iraqi officials have stated that Israeli forces used Iraqi airspace to strike at Iran, with both Tehran and Baghdad considering the act to be a violation of international law. While Israeli and U.S. officials have called the attack a success that dealt significant damage to Iranian military infrastructure, Iranian officials have said the strikes were mostly intercepted, though they have threatened a strong response.

Newsweek reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and U.S. Central Command for comment.

The Nujaba Movement was established in 2013 as one of many paramilitary units that joined the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq and neighboring Syria. It officially operates under the banner of the 12th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella of armed groups, many of which also have received support from Iran.

The Nujaba Movement is also a leading faction of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an unofficial coalition of Iraqi militias that are part of the broader Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has repeatedly targeted Israel and U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since Israel launched a war in Gaza in response to a surprise attack led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas last October.

Another primary Islamic Resistance in Iraq faction, Kataib Hezbollah, also warned that the U.S. “must pay the price for his recklessness in using Iraqi airspace, and this will be what will happen, God willing, in his time and place,” in a statement issued last week.

“And the Zionists are not exempt from this,” the statement added in reference to Israel, “for after they dared to attack Iran, they will inevitably dare to attack Iraq if they do not pay a heavy price for their aggression.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq’s campaign against U.S. troops has slowed significantly since February, following a series of U.S. strikes against militia positions in Iraq and Syria ordered by President Joe Biden in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. troops at the border between Jordan and Syria. Various groups have threatened to wage an even more intensive campaign if the U.S. did not withdraw its forces from the country.

The U.S. carried out another round of strikes in late July, claiming to preempt preparations for a militia drone strike against its forces in the region. Days later, a drone targeted U.S. personnel at Iraq’s Al Asad Airbase, injuring seven.

The Iraqi government has repeatedly condemned U.S. strikes conducted on Iraqi territory and has called on non-state actors to act within the framework of the law. The Nujaba Movement and other Islamic Resistance in Iraq factions have, meanwhile, called on Baghdad to establish a timeline for the exit of U.S. forces.

After reports emerged in September of such a deal having been reached, a senior Biden administration official formally announced later that month that forces involved in the U.S.-led coalition to defeat ISIS would withdraw from certain locations in Iraq in an initial transition period that would begin immediately and end in September 2025.

However, according to the official, Iraq would continue to allow U.S.-led coalition forces to operate from the country to support continued efforts against ISIS in Syria “throughout the second phase of the transition until at least September 2026, subject to conditions on the ground and, obviously, consultations among future political leaders of Iraq and the United States. “

“To be clear, the United States is not withdrawing from Iraq,” the official said.

The reports and subsequent announcement were met with skepticism from the Nujaba Movement. With regional tensions continuing to escalate, Asadi warned that U.S. troops would be forced to leave the country if necessary.

“We do not trust the words and agreements of the occupying American forces, as well as their dates,” Asadi told Newsweek. “But we have made room for Iraqi diplomacy in order to remove American forces from Iraqi territory.”

“And if it does not adhere to the timings,” he added, “it will leave humiliated under the strikes and fire of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, meanwhile, has continued to regularly claim strikes against Israel, most recently two back-to-back drone attacks launched Monday against “a vital target in the north of the occupied territories.”

Both attacks were said to have been conducted “in continuation of our approach to resisting the occupation, and in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians, including children, women and the elderly.”

“The Islamic Resistance confirms the continuation of its operations in destroying the strongholds of the enemies at an escalating pace,” the Iraqi militia coalition said in its statements, which were later accompanied by video footage purporting to show launches of the drones used in the attacks.

Also on Monday, the IDF reported that the Israel Air Force had intercepted a “number of suspicious aerial targets that approached Israeli territory from the east.”

In addition to battling Hamas in Gaza, the IDF launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon in September amid an intensified air campaign against the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, also a part of the Axis of Resistance. About a week into the campaign, a drone launched from Iraq killed two Israeli soldiers in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights.

At the time, an IDF spokesperson told Newsweek that such attacks are “something we’re very aware of moving forward and something that is part of our calculations and preparations as we move forward.”