Air strikes come hours after pro-Iran armed group Kataib Hezbollah proclaims conditional suspension of US embassy assaults.
Printed On 19 Mar 2026
Air strikes have killed two fighters from the Standard Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in northern Iraq, the paramilitary group says from one of many fronts within the sprawling warfare engulfing the Center East.
The 2 assaults focused PMF positions early on Thursday within the Nineveh area, the place Mosul metropolis is situated, and a navy airport in Salah al-Din province, in keeping with statements from the PMF, a predominantly Shia group that’s a part of Iraq’s safety equipment and contains a number of teams aligned with Iran.
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The PMF blamed the assault on Israel and the USA. Iraq has been drawn into the US-Israeli warfare on Iran, now in its third week.
The PMF was shaped in 2014 as a volunteer pressure supporting Iraqi safety forces within the combat towards ISIL (ISIS).
Strikes have focused Iran-backed teams, which in flip have claimed near-daily assaults on US pursuits in Iraq and throughout the area.
Elsewhere, a fireplace broke out at a naval base in southern Iraq when it was hit by a drone in a single day. An Iraqi safety supply informed Al Jazeera {that a} drone crashed right into a water therapy station on the Umm Qasr naval base close to the border with Kuwait.
Footage from the scene circulating on social media and verified by Al Jazeera confirmed flames and smoke rising from the positioning.
US embassy assaults to be suspended
Hours earlier than the assaults on PMF fighters, the pro-Iranian armed group Kataib Hezbollah mentioned its secretary-general had “issued orders to droop operations focusing on the US embassy in Baghdad for a interval of 5 days”.
Designated by Washington as a “terrorist organisation”, Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah listed a number of situations of the suspension, together with Israel ceasing its bombardment of the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Kataib Hezbollah additionally demanded “a dedication to chorus from bombing residential areas in Baghdad and different provinces”.
Each time “the enemy violates” the truce, “the response will probably be speedy”, the group mentioned, warning of extra strikes after the five-day interval.
The US embassy has been focused by drone and rocket assaults a number of occasions in current days. Air defences have intercepted a lot of the projectiles.
The embassy is within the Inexperienced Zone, a closely fortified district in central Baghdad that homes Iraqi authorities establishments and embassies.
A US diplomatic and logistics centre at Baghdad Worldwide Airport that homes navy personnel has additionally been usually focused.
