Kataib Hezbollah is also suspected to have been responsible for the abduction of a US reporter, Shelly Kittleson, late on Tuesday. These factions claim resistance legitimacy when attacking US targets, then denounce the strikes on their PMU brigade bases as attacks on Iraqi sovereignty. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesWhile the majority of these forces were Shia, not all pledged religious allegiance to Khamenei. “The killing of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah affected the Iraqi resistance factions more than that of Sayed al-Khamenei,” said an insider close to the pro-Iran factions. They follow events, and once the attacks on Iran stop, they will stop.”Yet the impact of the recent war went far beyond the resistance factions’ drones, he added.

Source: The Guardian April 03, 2026 14:23 UTC