Shafaq News/ On Friday, factions within the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) accused Israel of orchestrating militant activities in Syria and pledged to retaliate against what they called attempts to destabilize the region.
Abdelkader al-Karbalaei, a senior military figure in the Iran-backed Harakat al-Nujaba, stated on X that “the resurgence of Wahhabi terrorist groups in Syria, which he claims are threatening innocent lives and sacred sites, was a reaction to Israel's failures in Lebanon.”
"The Islamic Resistance is ready to crush these factions, as proven before. If they return, so will we," he declared.
Abu Alaa al-Walaei, leader of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, another IRI faction, accused Israel of “directly supporting terrorist groups in Syria and stirring unrest in Yemen.”
"These actions aim to drain the Resistance Axis from within, after the Zionist entity’s failure to confront its supporting fronts," he wrote on X, urging vigilance against potential escalations.
Iran-backed Iraqi factions, including Harakat al-Nujaba, Kataib Hezbollah, and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, have been instrumental in the Syrian conflict, providing support to President Bashar al-Assad, especially in key battles such as those in Aleppo and along the Iraq-Syria border. These groups, with direct backing from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have received training, weapons, and logistical support, deepening their involvement in Iran's regional "Axis of Resistance."
Syria has recently experienced a surge in violence, with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launching a large-scale attack on Syrian army positions in the northwest. The offensive led to the cutting of the international highway linking Damascus to Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The clashes resulted in over 200 fatalities most of them are from the opposition fighters.
Meanwhile, the Syrian army successfully repelled an advance by factions from the so-called "Joint Operations Room" in southeastern Idlib, while intense fighting continued on the western Aleppo front.
On Thursday, the army launched a counteroffensive, regaining control of the village of Jubas and forcing militants to retreat from the villages of Dadikh and Kafr Batikh in eastern Idlib. The counterattack was supported by heavy rocket shelling on positions held by HTS and its allies, with reports of Turkish and Ukrainian intelligence support for the factions.