Iraq’s Islamic Resistance claims responsibility for missile attack on Israel

Middle East, News, US January 9, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

The Iraq-based Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, claimed responsibility for the missile attack in Haifa, Israel. The movement declared that Israel should await more crippling attacks in retaliation for its bloody war on Gaza.

The claim came only hours after independent sources from Israel reported that an explosion was heard on the coast of Haifa port and plumes of smoke were rising into the air in the area. The Islamic Resistance of Iraq released a video, claiming that it attacked the Israeli port city of Haifa with a long-range cruise missile “Al-Arqeb”. Israeli officials did not confirm nor deny the reports.

Spokesman for the movement Hussein al-Moussawi claimed that the retaliatory strike conveyed a clear message to Israeli authorities that the Axis of Resistance would never abandon its strategic goals in the West Asia region. “Resistance fighters are fairly capable of striking areas [deep inside the occupied lands] beyond Haifa,” Moussawi said in his statement.

Moussawi underscored that the Haifa strike was not a coincidental event; instead, it was part of a meticulously crafted and bold strategy aimed at challenging the actions of both the United States and the Israeli regime.

Strikes on US base in Syria

Around the same time last week, a barrage of rockets targeted a U.S.-run military facility around Al-Omar oil facility in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr Al-Zawr. The attack was also reportedly orchestrated by the Islami Resistance movement. The assault was a retaliation for the U.S. airstrike targeting a truck at the Al-Qa’im border crossing. This crossing links the town of Abu Kamal in Syria’s Dayr Al-Zawr province to the city of Husaybah in the Al-Qa’im district of Iraq’s western province of Anbar.

Another attack was reported at the U.S. Qasrok base in the Syrian countryside of Hasakah. The attacks were carried out using a military drone. A military site was also hit in the occupied Golan Heights in a rocket attack.

*^{A fighter of the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia group and a man inspect the site of a U.S. airstrike, in Hilla, Iraq December 26, 2023. (Image Credit: Reuters/Alaa al-Marjani)}*

For more than 90 days, the Israeli occupation persists in its hostile actions against the Gaza Strip, receiving support from both American and European entities. During this period, its aircraft have been targeting hospitals, structures, residential areas, and the homes of Palestinian civilians, destroying the local population. Moreover, access to essential resources such as water, food, medicine, and fuel is being obstructed, resulting in the loss of 22,835 lives and injuries to 58,416 Palestinians.

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise attack on Israel in its Operation Al-Aqsa in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.