Kataib Hezbollah denies suspect charged in the US is a member

BAGHDAD — Kataib Hezbollah said Monday that Mohammed Baqir al-Saadi, recently charged in the United States on terrorism-related accusations, is not a member of the group, while warning that any targeting of Iraqis would be met with retaliation against Americans “in various fields.”

Security official Abu Mujahid al-Assaf said in a statement that al-Saadi “does not belong to Kataib Hezbollah,” describing him as “among the supporters and admirers of the resistance” who “will return to his homeland with his head held high.” The statement accused the United States and Israel of preparing “a new aggression” against leaders of Islamic resistance factions and the Popular Mobilization Forces, and said most American and Israeli reconnaissance operations were being launched from Jordan in preparation for “hostile acts inside Iraq.”

U.S. federal prosecutors announced last week that al-Saadi, 32, had been charged with terrorism-related offenses including conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations and alleged plots targeting U.S. interests in New York City. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York described him as a senior Kataib Hezbollah member with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and the late Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. He was transferred into U.S. custody overseas and ordered detained pending trial in Manhattan.

Since the regional war began in late February, Iran-aligned factions under the Islamic Resistance in Iraq umbrella have carried out repeated drone, rocket and missile attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic targets in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region. The United States has simultaneously struck PMF-linked positions across multiple governorates, killing dozens of fighters.