Iran International:

Conflicting reports from sources affiliated with Iran and its proxies have raised questions about their intentions, as a US base in Syria was targeted on Sunday for the first time in more than two months.

On January 30, following several months of sustained attacks against American troops in Iraq and Syria, the Shiite militia group Kataeb Hezbollah announced they would halt their strikes to “prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government.”

That statement had withstood the test of time until Sunday night when five rockets were launched from Iraq's town of Zummar towards a US military base in northeastern Syria.

Shortly after the attack, a post appeared on the Telegram group affiliated with Kataeb Hezbollah, seemingly alluding to Sunday night’s rocket attacks, and stating that the armed groups’ in Iraq had decided to resume attacks because they felt the Iraqi government had failed to deliver a deal to end the US military presence in the country.

“Iraqi resistance gave Iraq’s prime minister three months to negotiate with the American forces to come up with a specific timetable for their removal from Iraq,” the post on the Kataeb-affiliated Telegram channel. “But now… It’s become clear that some political parties were lying: there is no foreign intention to leave Iraq.” Hence the decision “to resume military action.”

The “military action” (and the Telegram statement) came only one day after Iraq’s prime minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani returned from Washington, where he had met President Joe Biden and other US officials to advance the plans for the Americans’ withdrawal from Iraq.

Not long after, Sabereen News, another popular Telegram group affiliated by Iran and its proxies, issued a statement denying that Kataeb Hezbollah had released a statement. Another Iran-affiliated outlet, Al Mayadeen, seconded the denial.

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