An Iran-backed armed group in Iraq has announced it will suspend attacks on the United States embassy in Baghdad for five days, following a recent wave of drone and rocket strikes. Journalists reported no attacks on the embassy on Wednesday night after days of escalating violence.

Despite the pause in Baghdad, an explosion was heard near the international airport in Erbil in the autonomous Kurdistan region, with smoke seen rising near the perimeter. The group, Kataeb Hezbollah, said its secretary-general had ordered the temporary halt in operations targeting the embassy.

The suspension is conditional. The group is demanding that Israel stop its bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs, an area controlled by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, and that there be a commitment to avoid bombing residential areas in Baghdad and other provinces. It warned that any violation of these conditions would trigger an immediate response and signaled that attacks could resume after the five-day period.