Akram al-Kaabi, the secretary-general of the Iraqi armed faction Harakat al-Nujaba (also Al-Nujaba Movement), said on Wednesday that recent remarks by the acting US chargé d’affaires in Iraq regarding weapons held by the resistance armed factions are “unacceptable.”
In a statement posted on X, Al Kaabi said “the resistance factions’ weapons are a red line … we used them to protect Iraq from defilement of ISIS and their American masters”.
He said those weapons “will not be surrendered as long as we breathe and will not be taken even if lives are sacrificed”.
“Israel is inciting the embassy charge d’affaires in Iraq to speak about the resistance weapons,” he claimed.
The statement came a day after the US announced a $10 million bounty for information on Al Kaabi.
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice programme said members of his militia have attacked US bases and diplomatic posts in Iraq and Syria, killing at least one contractor and wounding a service member.
Al Kaabi, a cleric sanctioned by the US Treasury since 2008 for “threatening the peace and stability of Iraq”, has long demanded the full withdrawal of American troops. Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group in 2019.
