ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Saraya Awliya al-Dam, a pro-Iran Iraqi armed faction and part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, on Wednesday announced that it had carried out four “special operations” targeting US bases inside and outside Iraq.

Saraya Awliya al-Dam has been one of the most active Iraqi pro-Iran armed groups in terms of targeting US interests since the breakout of the US-Israeli war with Iran in late February. The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks, many of which targeted Erbil. 

The group announced in a statement that it "carried out four special operations targeting American bases inside and outside Iraq over the past 24 hours." 

The strikes were aimed at avenging Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes in the first 24 hours of the war, and "deter the aggression that led to the martyrdom of a group of Iraqi resistance youths," according to the pro-Iran militia.

Iraq has been the only country throughout this conflict targeted by both sides, with US-Israeli forces targeting Iran-backed groups, while Iran and its proxies attack US bases and diplomatic missions in the Kurdistan Region and in Baghdad. 

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday claimed that it had targeted Erbil's Harir airbase with five missiles, while pro-Iran factions, such as Saraya Awliya al-Dam, have claimed several attacks on the US Consulate in Erbil and Erbil International Airport.

US-Israeli strikes across Iraq have killed several members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), with the latest announced attack being a strike on a base belonging to the Kataib al-Imam Ali in Kirkuk's Dibis, killing four of its members on Tuesday.