News - Middle East: Major groups forming Iraq’s Islamic Resistance, a coalition of anti-terror fighters, have decided to join Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement to “directly confront” the Israeli regime in case of its ground invasion of Lebanon.

The groups made the decision during a meeting in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday, a senior Iraqi resistance official told the London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed news outlet.

According to the official, the meeting featured commanders and representatives of such groups as Kata'ib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada among others.

The meeting led to conclusion of some decisions, mostly importantly the decision for “direct confrontation in battles alongside Hezbollah against whatever potential ground operation by the Zionist enemy [against Lebanon],” he said.

The Israeli regime has remarkably intensified its attacks on Lebanon since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Over Tuesday and Wednesday, the regime detonated thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkie radios across the country, killing at least 39 people and wounding 3,000 others.

On Friday, it bombed a residential building in a southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, killing 38 people, including three children and seven women as well as Ibrahim Aqil, one of Hezbollah’s senior commanders.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli warplanes conducted extensive airstrikes against towns and villages across Lebanon. The raids have so far claimed the lives of at least 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 others.