Following Israeli Attacks Senior Officials In Iran-Backed Iraqi Militias Threaten Merciless Revenge; Declare Readiness To Send Thousands To Lebanon To Fight Israel

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On September 20, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces Spokesman announced that on the same day the Israeli Air Force had attacked Beirut and killed Ibrahim Aquil, Hizbullah operations chief and the head of its elite Radwan Unit. Others reportedly killed in the attack were senior members of the Hizbullah operations division and the Radwan Unit.[1] Also on September 20, the Iran-backed Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades militia reported the death of one of its operatives, a “security adviser” named Abu Haydar Al-Khafaji, who was said to have been killed in an Israeli attack on Damascus.[2]

Senior officials in Iran-backed militias in Iraq harshly condemned the Israeli attacks, asserting that they proved that “jihad is the only path to freedom and dignity.” They added that the attacks “will not go unpunished” and threatened to retaliate against the enemy forcefully and mercilessly. They also expressed willingness to send thousands of their members to Lebanon to help Hizbullah in its war against Israel.

The following is a review of the statements issued by some Iran-backed militias between September 20 and 21, 2024:

On September 20, the Iran-backed Iraqi Al-Nujaba Movement militia posted two official statements on its Telegram channel. In its first statement, the militia congratulated “our brothers in arms and in jihad” in the Hizbullah Brigades on the death of its member and “security adviser” Abu Haydar Al-Khafaji who, the organization claimed, was killed on the same day in an alleged Israeli attack in the Damascus area. Al-Nujaba also stated that the members of the resistance “are proving today that jihad is the only path to freedom and dignity and that their enemy will not be stopped by statements of condemnation but by their pure blood spilled for the sake of Allah and the homeland and in support of the mujahideen.” He declared that “these crimes will not go unpunished,” and threatened to attack the enemy “mercilessly with regardless of any criteria. We have reached the end of our rope… The Zionist enemy supported by the U.S. is waging all-out war against Islam and the Muslims everywhere. The response will come soon.”[3]

In a second statement, the organization harshly condemned the Israeli attack on the southern suburb of Beirut which, it claimed, killed or injured dozens of civilians. It described the attack as “a clear continuation of the violations perpetrated by the Zionist occupation forces, with the blessing of the West and the support of the U.S., the greatest sponsor of evil in the world.” The statement further asserted that the attack would only increase the organization’s determination to adhere to the path of jihad, and addressed the Lebanese “brothers,” especially the members of Hizbullah, and vowed to respond “forcefully and ceaselessly to avenge the blood of the martyrs and to remove this malignant cancerous growth from the body of the Arab and Islamic nation.”[4]

On September 20, the Iran-backed Iraqi Sayyid Al-Shuhada Brigades militia leader Abu Alaa Al-Walai posted an open message to Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah expressing condolences on the deaths of senior Hizbullah officials and adding that he and his men “are waiting for a signal” from him, and are ready to send to Lebanon “a hundred thousand [Iraqi] heroes” for every thousand Lebanese martyrs who fall in battle. He further stated, “We are at your command like recruits, with our resistance, our weapons, our money and our lives… add us, men, women, the elderly and children, to the list of your people.”[5]

It is notable that on the same day, another Iran-backed Iraqi militia, the Sarkhat Al-Quds Brigades, also declared its willingness to send thousands of fighters to Lebanon to help in the battle against Israel.[6]

On September 21, on his Telegram channel, Akram Al-Ka’abi, leader of the Iran-backed Iraqi Al-Nujaba Movement militia, posted a condolence message to Nasrallah and the families of Aqil and the other mujahideen killed in the September 20 Israeli attack. Al-Kaabi described Aqil as “a brother and friend” and added that he “has left his blessed mark on the battlefields against the arrogant and the colonialists.” He wrote that Aqil’s blood would be “a nightmare that will pursue the occupiers until the total eradication of their terrorism which supersedes the terrorism of the Islamic State in the extent of its ugliness and the danger inherent within it.” He also asserted that the Islamic resistance in Iraq “will continue its operations in the framework of the front for Iraqi assistance to Palestine, with the aim of supporting the resistance in Gaza.”[7]