A U.S. diplomatic spokesperson indicated that “we’re still going to do everything we can to deter the Shiite militias [in Iraq] from attacking us… we’re starting to see and continue to see more of this activity start to creep up again”. She further warned that “the Iranian regime should know that we will hold them accountable for any actions that their Shiite militias take in Iraq… We were serious at the beginning of the year when we warned them on this before we killed Qassem Soleimani and we’re serious about it now, and they need to take those warnings seriously”.