ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kataib Hezbollah, a pro-Tehran Iraqi militia group, said on Sunday the US must face consequences for misusing Iraqi airspace, a day after Tehran claimed Israel used it to launch strikes against the Islamic republic. “America must pay the price for their recklessness in using Iraqi airspace, and this will happen, with God's help, at the right time and place,” the group said in a statement, in reference to Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday. “The Zionists will not be exempt from this, for after daring to attack Iran, they will certainly dare to attack Iraq, if they do not pay a heavy price for their aggression,” the statement added. On Saturday, the Iranian army said that Israel used Iraqi airspace provided by the United States to launch its attack on Iran. Four Iranian soldiers were killed in the operation that Israel said was in response to Tehran’s attacks on Israel. Kataib Hezbollah warned that the repetition of these strikes “is an unprecedented and serious development that Iran has not faced before,” and they would not have taken place “without prior agreement and deliberate planning with the Americans, who dominate Iraqi skies.” “They will certainly dare to attack Iraq if they do not pay a heavy price for their aggression,” the statement added. Iraqi militia groups have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of US troops in the country, where about 2,500 US troops are deployed. The US and Iraq announced last month they had reached an agreement to end the military mission of the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in the country within a year, adding that they will transition the mission to bilateral security partnerships. Israel carried out strikes on Iranian targets in Tehran and several other provinces around 2 am local time on Saturday, killing at least four service members of the Iranian army. The Israeli Defence Forces said the strikes were in response to Tehran’s attacks on Israel. On Sunday, state media citing Iranian authorities said a civilian also was killed in the attack, raising the death toll to five. Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander.
