“All their interests and facilities in Iraq and the region will be targeted by our militants if the United States insists on attacking Syria,” a spokesman for the Iraqi militia group al-Nujaba'a told Reuters by telephone on Friday, without giving details.

Al-Nujaba'a is an umbrella group which includes fighters of the Asaib al-Haq and Kata'ib Hezbollah militias and the Mehdi army militia of prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Worries mounted in the region following US intentions to bomb Syria over conflicting reports of an alleged chemical attack that is widely believed to have been committed by Syria's US-backed militants to open the way for their Western and Arab supporters to attack Syria.

The militants threatened to strike US interests in Iraq in September last year over an offensive film about the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) that triggered protests in Libya, Egypt and Yemen and other Muslim nations.

The Barack Obama administration, backed with Israeli intelligence services, says it has concluded that the Syrian army has used chemicals near Damascus.

However the US has failed to provide evidence of its claims against Syria while international condemnation grows against its military ambitions.

The US claims come as Syria has already provided UN with evidences on at least three chemical attacks carried out by US-backed militants near the Syrian capital.

NTJ/SHI