Iraqi pro-Iran militias threatened to target the interests of European countries that join US-Israeli strikes on Iran after a senior Kataeb Hezbollah officer was killed in an airstrike south of Baghdad.

Ali Hassan al-Furayji, a senior deputy in Kataeb Hezbollah, was killed along with two other operatives in the overnight strike, the group’s leader Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said.

In a statement issued by the umbrella group Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the militias warned that any European country joining the “Zionist-American” campaign against Iran would see its forces and interests in Iraq and across the region become “legitimate targets.”

“The criminal Zionist-American enemy continues rallying its allies against the free people of the Islamic Republic and the region, begging some of the European countries to join,” the statement said.

“Any of those countries that do join in this battle… their forces and interests in Iraq and the region will be subject to legitimate targeting,” it added.