The American embassy in Baghdad warned U.S. citizens in Iraq on Wednesday that they should leave the country as soon as possible, in part due to the Iraqi government not doing enough to prevent attacks or protect victims.
The warning followed the shocking abduction of American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson on Tuesday from the streets of Baghdad, believed to have been conducted by the Iran-backed jihadist militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH). KH, or the Hezbollah Brigade, is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a group of mostly Iran-linked militants whom the Iraqi government legalized as an arm of its military during the fight to dismantle the Islamic State “caliphate.” As the PMF forces are mostly Shiite, and ISIS was a Sunni institution, those forces engaged in open conflict with the “caliphate” during its existence.
Iraq is one of over a dozen countries in the Middle East that has come under fire by the Iranian military since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, the American military initiative to eliminate Iran’s ability to pose a threat to its neighbors by destroying its military capabilities. Iran has shot missiles and drones at Iraq (including the Kurdistan region), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and other countries with no direct connection to the conflict. In Iraq, Iran has attempted to strike suspected U.S.-linked targets.
Prior to the conflict, however, Iran already enjoyed outsized influence in Iraq as a result of its connections to the PMF and the Baghdad leadership’s Shiite religious proximity to Iran. Iran is also believed to be close to a group calling itself the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” that emerged in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas slaughter in Israel, targeting American assets in the country.
“The Iraqi government has not prevented terrorist attacks in or from Iraqi territory,” the U.S. embassy in Iraq warned its citizens on Wednesday. “Iran-aligned terrorist militia groups may claim to be associated with the Iraqi government. Terrorists may carry identification denoting their status as Iraqi government employees.”
These terrorists may, as soon as within the next 24 to 48 hours, attempt massacres or bombings targeting “energy infrastructure, hotels, airports and other locations perceived to be associated with the United States, as well as Iraqi institutions and civilian targets,” the embassy message continued.
As a result, the embassy suggested that all Americans “should leave Iraq now.”
The warning followed the kidnapping of Kittleson, the American journalist, which the State Department indicated it believed had links to KH, one of the deadliest and most virulently anti-American factions within the PMF.
“An individual with ties to the Iranian-aligned militia group Kataib Hizballah believed to be involved in the kidnapping has been taken into custody by Iraqi authorities,” Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.
“The State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them and we will continue to coordinate with the FBI to ensure their release as quickly as possible,” he added, warning Americans once again to leave the country.
KH is believed to have very close ties to the Iranian state. On January 3, 2020, the founder of KH, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was killed in an American airstrike in Baghdad that also targeted Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most formidable terrorist mastermind. KH was quick to begin attempting bombings of American targets in Iraq following the October 7 attacks, stopping briefly only “to prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government,” to which it technically belongs. It was one of the first Iran-backed militias to threaten America once again after President Donald Trump approved airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025.
“If America intervenes in the war, we will act without any hesitation against its interests and bases in the region,” a statement from the militia at the time read, demanding that the Iraqi government close “the embassy of the great Satan [U.S.] and expelling the American occupation forces from the country.”
President Donald Trump announced in a speech on Wednesday night that hostilities between Iran and the United States may soon conclude, as the objectives of Operation Epic Fury have largely been met.
“As we speak this evening, it’s been just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury, targeting the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran,” Trump announced. “In these past four weeks, our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield — victories like few people have ever seen before. Tonight, Iran’s navy is gone, their air force is in ruins.”
Trump encouraged the Iranian government to cease threatening commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and other countries with more of a direct link to the shipping route to take responsibility for safe transit in the region. He did warn, however, that the conflict may continue for another two to three weeks.
“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly. We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks; we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong,” he said.
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