Attacks against US interests and troops in Iraq, including the one against the US embassy, ​​are part of the start of the implementation of “new rules of engagement”, an official of the Kataeb Hezbollah organization (“Brigades of the Party of God”) said on social media on Saturday .

This paramilitary organization is a component of the Hasd al-Shaabi (“Popular Mobilization Units”), which are now formally integrated into the Iraqi army, but maintain a high degree of operational autonomy.

The group, which is close to Iran, although it did not clearly claim responsibility for the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad early last Friday, described the facility as an advanced operations base used to plan military operations.

The attack was “strongly” condemned by the US, as was Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. According to the latter, it was a “terrorist” action against a diplomatic mission, “unacceptable and unjustified”.

For Kataeb Hezbollah (KH), however, the embassy is involved in the planning of military operations and those who call it a diplomatic mission are “servile” and self-serving, according to Abu Ali al-Askari, a KH official.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, during his conversation with Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani yesterday, specifically referred to the KH and another organization, Harakat al-Nujaba, to which he blamed the recent attacks on US diplomatic and military facilities in Iraq. territory and emphasized that the US reserves the right to retaliate, according to a press release from his services at the Pentagon.

US officials say there have been some 85 attacks against US interests or troops in Iraq and Syria since October 17. A group of pro-Iranian organizations claimed responsibility for most of them, saying it was retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the war on the Gaza Strip.

The self-proclaimed “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” claimed responsibility for 11 attacks against the US last Friday — the most within a day after they began in mid-October.

Prime Minister Sudani ordered security forces to investigate the attack on the US embassy and on Saturday replaced the head of security in Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone, his services said.

In apparent defiance of Mr. Sudani, the KH has declared that it considers members of the Iraqi security forces who cooperate with US forces to be “accomplices in their crimes.”

Washington keeps about 900 of its troops deployed in Syria and another nearly 2,500 in Iraq as part of the operation against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.