An influential pro-Iranian armed group in Iraq pledged early Thursday to stop attacking the US embassy for five days, subject to several conditions including that Israel stop strikes on parts of Beirut.
AFP reported no drone or rocket attacks so far on the US embassy in Iraq's capital Baghdad between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
The country has been unwillingly drawn into the regional conflict triggered by the US-Israel attack on its neighbor Iran on February 28.
Strikes have targeted Iran-backed groups, which in turn have claimed near daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region.
Kataib Hezbollah said the group's secretary-general had "issued orders to suspend operations targeting the US Embassy in Baghdad for a period of five days".
In a statement the Iran-backed group -- designated by Washington as a "terrorist organization" -- stipulated several conditions, including Israel "ceasing its bombardment" of southern Beirut suburbs, and "a commitment to refrain from bombing residential areas in Baghdad and other provinces".
Whenever "the enemy violates" the truce "the response will be immediate", it said, warning of an "escalation of strikes" after the five-day period.
The US embassy has been targeted by drone and rocket attacks several times in recent days, with air defenses intercepting most of the projectiles.
A US diplomatic and logistics center at Baghdad International Airport, which houses military personnel, has also been regularly targeted.
AFP journalists reported Wednesday morning at least four explosions in the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region.
It was unclear what the target was and the projectiles were intercepted over the city, home to a major US consulate complex, while its airport houses US-led coalition troops.
And a strike near Iraq's western border with Syria on Wednesday killed three fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the alliance said.
The fighters from the alliance -- now part of Iraq's regular armed forces -- were hit in a US or Israeli strike that targeted their main command center in Anbar province.
Pro-Iran factions also have brigades that operate within the alliance, but have a reputation for acting on their own.
- Gas stoppage -
The war has also battered Iraq's already fragile economy.
The country's gas imports from Iran were halted on Wednesday, authorities said, the cutoff coming as Baghdad barely had time to celebrate a deal to export a fraction of its oil production through Türkiye after disruptions to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
The electricity ministry's spokesperson Ahmed Moussa told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that "due to regional developments, Iranian gas supplies to Iraq completely halted an hour ago," cutting about 3,100 megawatts of power, which will "certainly affect the grid".
He sought, however, to calm fears of more frequent blackouts, saying the ministry will instead use "alternative fuels and domestic gas reserves".
News of the gas stoppage came after Tehran denounced a US-Israeli strike on Iranian facilities exploiting the vast South Pars/North Dome gas field.
Despite its abundant oil and gas reserves, Iraq's power plants are highly dependent on gas imported from Iran, which supplies about a third of the country's needs.
Electricity shortages are already a frequent complaint in Iraq, which suffers from endemic corruption and dilapidated public infrastructure.
Most households rely on private generators to compensate for daily power cuts.
Early Wednesday, Iraq said it resumed oil exports from its fields in the northern province of Kirkuk in agreement with the autonomous Kurdistan Region, through which the pipeline to Türkiye’s port of Ceyhan runs.
But it will export 250,000 barrels per day, only a fraction of the 3.5 million before the war.
However, Iraq, whose crude sales make up 90 percent of its foreign revenue, had few options after Iran effectively shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, through which Iraq previously shipped most of its oil from the southern Basra fields.
