ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A senior member of an Iraqi armed faction on Sunday said that resistance groups will strike a heavy blow to Israel as punishment for using Iraqi airspace to carry out its attack against Iran.

The Israeli military conducted a series of airstrikes on Iranian military targets in Tehran, Khuzestan, and Ilam provinces on early Saturday, in retaliation for Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this month. Iranian authorities said that the attack was largely ineffective, but did announce the death of four of its soldiers as a result of the strikes.

At least three foreign objects landed in various areas of Iraq’s Salahaddin province during the early hours of Saturday, coinciding with the Israeli strikes on Iran. A defense analyst told The New Region that one of the objects photographed was “a spent booster” of an Israeli missile, adding that it was “very likely” that Iraq’s airspace was used in the operation.

Abbas al-Zaidi, a senior member of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, said that Israel’s “bill for accountability and retribution” was increasing by the day, adding that through using Iraqi airspace for its attack on Iran, Israel has renewed its attacks and violations - “which are known throughout time” - against Iraq.

“Certainly, the Iraqi resistance factions will direct punitive and deterrent strikes against the enemy as just retribution, but this time they will be of a heavy caliber,” Zaidi told The New Region on Sunday.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella network of Iran-backed armed groups which has claimed hundreds of attacks against Israeli and American targets since October 2023 in response to the war in Gaza, said it carried out three drone strikes against “key targets” in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and southern Israel's Eilat on Sunday morning.

Haider Salman, a political analyst, claimed that six Israeli jets had flown over four Iraqi regions around the time of the attack, alleging that the Iraqi government knew of this information but refrained from mentioning it in its condemnation statement.

The Iraqi government in a statement condemned the attack, reiterating Baghdad’s solidarity with Tehran and renewing calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza. It also warned of “serious consequences of the international community’s silence” toward the Israel aggression.

The Communication Center of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces said Iraqi airspace was used in Israel’s Saturday attack with the help of US military in Iraq, issuing a warning to Washington which it accused of “playing a central role” in providing support for Israel.

The New Region reached out to Iraqi government spokesperson Basim al-Awadi, Joint Operations Command spokesperson Tahsin al-Khafaji, and the Ministry of Transport for comment, all of which declined to comment.