Above photo: X.
Iraqi factions announced this week the start of a ‘naval blockade’ against Israeli ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
As part of coordinated actions by the Resistance Axis in support of Palestine.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) announced a new attack on the Israeli Port of Ashdod on 25 January, one day after the start of “phase two” of Iraqi operations in support of Gaza.
“In continuation of our approach to resisting [US] occupation, in support of our people in Gaza, and in response to [Israeli] massacres … the Islamic Resistance in Iraq today, Thursday … attacked the port of Ashdod in the occupied territories with drones,” the IRI said in a statement on Thursday.
This marks the second time in less than a week that the Iraqi coalition has launched a drone attack on Ashdod.
On Wednesday, Abu Ala al-Walai, Secretary-General of the Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada armed group, urged “the fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq to begin phase two of their blessed operations, which will include a blockade on Zionist maritime navigation and the disabling of the [occupied] ports.”
The announcement came hours after the US launched airstrikes on the Kataib Hezbollah resistance group – a faction within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – in Al-Qaim on the Iraqi-Syrian border and in Jurf al-Nasr south of Baghdad.
Several Iraqi resistance factions banded under the IRI umbrella last October. They began striking US bases in Iraq and Syria in rejection of US support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
As part of these operations, the Iraqi resistance has also launched drone and missile attacks on targets inside Israel.
Thursday’s operation comes as the Israeli economy reels due to a naval blockade imposed by the Yemeni armed forces.
Vessels linked to or bound for Israel have come under continued Yemeni fire, prompting violent US and British attacks inside Yemen.
On 24 January, Yemeni naval forces engaged in a two-hour battle with the US navy, successfully landing a missile attack on a US warship providing cover to a commercial vessel.