BAGHDAD/CAIRO: New strikes hit a military base in Iraq housing the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group on Monday, while air defences in the Kurdish city of Erbil intercepted drone attacks.

“One fighter was martyred and another wounded in fresh bombing on the Jurf al-Nasr base,” a Kataeb Hezbollah source said, after several strikes hit the facility earlier in the day.

The base serves as one of the main bastions of the powerful armed group, and has been targeted several times since the start of the Israel-US campaign against Iran.

Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, said it did not want to be dragged into the war.

But it has not been spared.

From the early hours of the campaign against Iran, strikes blamed on the US and Israel hit Iran-backed groups, which have vowed retaliation.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said that “Iran continues to bomb areas in the Kurdistan Region, especially Erbil, while the opposing side targets sites in southern and western Iraq,” without directly naming Israel and the US.

On Sunday, nine Iran-backed fighters were killed in separate strikes, including five from Kataeb Hezbollah.

Several Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, including Kataeb Hezbollah, have said they will not stay “neutral” and will defend the Islamic republic.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has warned a prolonged war in the Middle East threatens the Suez Canal, the country’s key economic lifeline.

Three major container shipping companies have halted passage this week through two of the region’s vital waterways as US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation disrupt global maritime traffic.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2026