Pro-Iran faction urges Iraqi troops to move away from US forces in bases 

The anti-American group's statement came after mortars and rockets hit the Iraqi capital's Green Zone on Saturday and two rockets slammed into a base housing US troops.
Portraits of fighters from Kataeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) seen on the wall of the US embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad (File photo| AFP)
Portraits of fighters from Kataeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) seen on the wall of the US embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad (File photo| AFP)

BAGHDAD: Kataeb Hezbollah, a hardline pro-Iran faction in Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi military network, urged Iraqi troops on Saturday to move away from US forces at military bases.

"We ask security forces in the country to get at least 1,000 meters away from US bases starting on Sunday at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT)," said the group.

The vehemently anti-American group's statement came after mortars and rockets hit the Iraqi capital's Green Zone on Saturday and two rockets slammed into a base housing US troops, security sources said, a day after a deadly American strike.

In Baghdad, security sources said that mortar rounds on Saturday evening hit the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US embassy is based. The Iraqi military said that one projectile hit inside the zone, while another landed close to the enclave. 

Sources there told AFP that sirens rang out at the US compound. A pair of Katyusha rockets then hit the Balad airbase north of Baghdad, where American troops are based, security sources and the Iraqi military said.

Earlier, Friday's drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on Friday killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, top Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and a clutch of other Iranian and Iraqi figures. 

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