The daughter of a member of the pro-Iranian armed group Kataeb Hezbollah, who was killed in a reported U.S. strike in Al-Qaim, attends his funeral with different mourners on the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf on March 19, 2026. The influential pro-Iranian armed group pledged early March 19 to cease attacking the U.S. embassy for 5 days, topic to a number of situations together with that Israel cease strikes on components of Beirut.
| Photograph Credit score: AFP
A professional-Iran group in Iraq vowed on Thursday (March 19, 2026) to cease attacking the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for 5 days, however solely below sure situations, with strikes focusing on different places within the nation.
After a wave of strikes on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq’s capital Baghdad in current days, AFP journalists reported no drone or rocket assaults on Wednesday (March 18, 2026) evening.
However on Thursday an explosion was heard close to Erbil’s worldwide airport within the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan area, stated AFP journalists who additionally noticed smoke rising close to the fence.
A witness stated two related explosions had been heard within the morning. Erbil is house to a significant U.S. consulate complicated, whereas its airport homes U.S.-led coalition diplomatic advisors.
Two drones additionally earlier focused the US logistics centre at Baghdad Worldwide Airport, which homes navy personnel and has been usually focused, in line with a safety official.
One crashed inside the centre’s compound and the opposite fell right into a civil aviation academy, the supply stated, including that neither brought on any harm.
The U.S. Embassy and logistics centre has been focused by drone and rocket assaults a number of occasions in current days, with air defences intercepting a lot of the projectiles.
Iraq has been drawn into the Center East conflict triggered by the U.S.-Israel assault on its neighbour Iran on February 28.
Strikes have focused Iran-backed teams, which in flip have claimed close to each day assaults on US pursuits in Iraq and throughout the area.
These newest assaults come simply hours after Kataeb Hezbollah stated the group’s secretary-general had “issued orders to droop operations focusing on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for a interval of 5 days”.
The Iran-backed group, designated by Washington as a “terrorist organisation”, listed a number of situations, together with Israel ceasing its bombardment of the southern suburbs of Beirut.
That space is a bastion of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which can also be Iran-backed and is at conflict with Israel.
Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah additionally demanded “a dedication to chorus from bombing residential areas in Baghdad and different provinces”.
At any time when “the enemy violates” the truce “the response will probably be quick”, it stated, warning of extra strikes after the five-day interval.
Two Hashed al-Shaabi fighters had been killed early on Thursday in strikes in northern Iraq, in line with the group, which stated positions within the Nineveh area in Salah al-Din province had been focused.
The In style Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a part of Iraq’s common armed forces, blamed the strikes on the U.S. and Israel.
Professional-Iran factions even have brigades that function inside the alliance, however have a status for appearing on their very own.
Revealed – March 19, 2026 10:01 pm IST