Militias aligned with Iran warned the US that they would retaliate against any American attack on the Islamic Republic, as the Trump administration mobilises to limit the fallout of potential strikes.
The warnings recall tensions from 2025, when the US, Israel and Iran engaged in direct conflict, but also underscore the dangers for militia groups aligned with Iran if they decide to engage in a fresh war.
Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq said it was prepared for “total war” if the US attacked Iran.
Abu Hussein al‑Hamidawi, the Iraqi group’s leader, said the “enemies” of the Islamic Republic will face “the bitterest forms of death”, in an explosive statement released on Sunday.
“You will taste every form of deadly suffering, nothing of you will remain in our region, and we will strike terror in your hearts,” the statement read.
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Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis threatened to restart their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
The group released a video on Monday showing a vessel cutting through the water before nightfall, and another vessel engulfed in flames. The video was captioned with: “Soon.”
US bases from Jordan to Gulf
Both threats underscore the risk the US faces as the Trump administration weighs an attack.
Middle East Eye reported on Monday that one option the US is debating is precision strikes on “high-value” Iranian officials and commanders who Washington deems responsible for the deaths of protesters in the Islamic Republic.
Discussions within the administration have been described as “chaotic” because some officials are worried about the ramifications of a strike.
US weighs ‘precision strikes’ on Iranian officials as military build-up surges, sources say
As of mid 2025, the US is believed to have about 40,000 troops stationed across the Middle East.
Around 5,000 troops are stationed in Iraq and Syria at bases that have previously come under attack from Iran-aligned militias. But likely more sensitive for the US would be an attack on a base in Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, or Saudi Arabia, where tens of thousands of US troops are stationed.
Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar have lobbied the US against attacking Iran out of fear they could be caught in the crossfire of a new war.
Following speculation over the UAE’s position on an attack, Abu Dhabi released a statement on Monday saying it would not allow its territory or airspace to be used for strikes.
The US has surged fresh military assets into the region. The Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier has been moved from the South China Sea to the Middle East. It carries F-35 warplanes and F/A-18 jet fighters, in addition to EA-18G Growler electronic-warfare planes. It is also accompanied by guided-missile destroyers.
Open-source flight trackers have also reported that the US has built up a squadron of F-15 warplanes at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. The buildup of warplanes in Jordan would give the US options, as the Gulf states resist becoming involved in strikes.
The US faced a similar threat from militias aligned with Iran, when Israel and the Islamic Republic traded blows in October and April 2025, then again in June, when the US bombed three Iranian nuclear sites.
Jordan was the site of the deadliest militia attack on US soldiers. In January 2024, a drone strike killed three US soldiers and wounded more than 40 at a desert outpost on the Hashemite Kingdom’s border with Iraq.
The US blamed Kataib Hezbollah for the strike and, in retaliation, assassinated Abu Baqir al-Saadi, a senior commander in Kataib Hezbollah, the following month.
The New York Times reported on Monday that Joe Kent, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, warned Iraq that if Iranian-backed militias were to strike US troops, Washington would retaliate.
Reordering of region
Kataib Hezbollah is the most powerful and elite force in a constellation of pro-Iranian Shia paramilitary groups operating in Iraq, dubbed the Popular Mobilisation Forces.
Kataib Hezbollah’s importance to Iran has increased because its main ally next door to Israel, Lebanese Hezbollah, has been severely degraded.
Iran premised its defence against US and Israeli attacks on the Lebanese group, which has been called the world’s largest armed non-state actor, being able to inflict serious damage against Israel.
War on Gaza: US officials see Iran escalating proxy war into uncharted terrain with Jordan strike
However, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated by Israel in October 2025, and the group was forced to sign a lopsided ceasefire that enshrined Israel’s ability to attack it. Hezbollah has not retaliated against Israeli strikes even as it is pressured to disarm.
The Lebanese Armed Forces announced at the beginning of this year that it had completed its disarmament of Southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has operated for decades. The group originated in the 1980s out of opposition to Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.
“We will choose at that time how to act,” Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Monday, “but we are not neutral.”
With the exception of the strike on Jordan, Iraqi militias like Kataib Hezbollah largely sat out the regional war that erupted following the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
In response to the attack, Israel unleashed a genocide on Gaza, where over 71,500 people have been killed. But a wider geopolitical reordering of the region also occurred. Iranian ally, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, was ousted by Islamist rebels in December 2024. Hezbollah’s degradation was also part of that shift.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, Yemen’s Houthis and Lebanese Hezbollah have all been described as part of an “axis of resistance” backed by Tehran. But each group has different levels of independence from Iran and important local positions.
For example, the Popular Mobilisation Forces are legally part of the Iraqi state and rely on funds from Baghdad to pay salaries. Over the weekend, Shia political parties associated with the militias nominated former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as their candidate to return to the top role in Iraq.
Hezbollah is Lebanon’s most popular Shia political party. Yemen’s Houthis follow a Zaydi branch of Shia Islam. While they have obtained arms and training from Iran, they also operate independently.
Of all the groups that have battled with Israel and the US since 7 October 2023, the Houthis may have emerged as the strongest from the conflict. They won praise even among critics in the Arab and Muslim world for their audacious attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, in what they said was solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The group faced brutal Israeli and later US strikes, but endured them from their heartland in Yemen’s mountainous northwest. In May 2025, the US agreed to a truce with the Houthis, mediated by Oman and spurred by a request from Riyadh ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf.
The Houthis and the US each agreed to stop their attacks on each other, but the group continued to launch missiles at Israel after the ceasefire, even hitting Ben Gurion International Airport, without sparking a US reprisal. If the Houthis were to begin attacking vessels in the Red Sea again, it would likely mark an end to the truce with the US.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
