Major groups forming Iraq’s Islamic Resistance, a coalition of anti-terror fighters, have decided to join Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement to “directly confront” the Israeli regime in case of its ground invasion of Lebanon.
The groups made the decision during a meeting in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday, a senior Iraqi resistance official told the London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed news outlet.
According to the official, the meeting featured commanders and representatives of such groups as Kata'ib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada among others.
The meeting led to conclusion of some decisions, mostly importantly the decision for “direct confrontation in battles alongside Hezbollah against whatever potential ground operation by the Zionist enemy [against Lebanon],” he said.
The Israeli regime has remarkably intensified its attacks on Lebanon since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Over Tuesday and Wednesday, the regime detonated thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkie radios across the country, killing at least 39 people and wounding 3,000 others.
On Friday, it bombed a residential building in a southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, killing 38 people, including three children and seven women as well as Ibrahim Aqil, one of Hezbollah’s senior commanders.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli warplanes conducted extensive airstrikes against towns and villages across Lebanon. The raids have so far claimed the lives of at least 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 others.
The deadly escalation comes amid the regime’s recurrent threats of expanding the aggression into another all-out war on the country.
Earlier this week, Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada said it was ready to send thousands of resistance fighters to Lebanon in the event of such a war.
Still commenting on the meeting, the Iraqi official said, “Over the past hours, Iraqi resistance commanders have contacted Hezbollah as means of implementing relevant coordination regarding whatever potential changes.”
The groups agreed to provide Hezbollah with arms support and fighting forces, while simultaneously expanding their ongoing drone and missile strikes from the Iraqi or Syrian territory against targets lying across the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Iraqi Resistance has been staging numerous such strikes in support of the war-hit Gazans.
Since early August, the umbrella group has also stepped up its operations against United States-occupied bases across Iraq and neighboring Syria.
The operations have been seeking to convey its protest at Washington’s unquestioning political, military, and intelligence support for Tel Aviv’s atrocities against Palestinians.
During the Monday meeting, the groups also agreed to target the interests of the countries and parties that contribute to the Israeli regime’s aggression against Lebanon.