Pro-Iranian militant group in Iraq says it launched drone attack on Jordan Valley

(Reuters) - The pro-Iranian Islamic Resistance in Iraq militant group said on Sunday it had launched a drone attack on a target in the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley.

After Hamas militants launched their attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year triggering the war in Gaza, Iraqi Shi'ite armed factions, like other pro-Iranian groups, pledged to carry out attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq vowed to escalate its attacks.

In a statement, the Israeli military said interceptors were launched towards a UAV (drone) that was launched from Iraq and was identified crossing from Syria into Israeli territory. No injuries were reported.

The pro-Iranian militant group said its drones hit a location in the Jordan Valley in the "occupied Palestinian territories" but did not elaborate.

Tensions in the Middle East have shot up since thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Lebanon's Hezbollah members exploded in an attack widely blamed on Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged some of the heaviest cross-border fire in a conflict running in parallel to the almost year-long Gaza war.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Ahmad Tolba, Additonal reporting by Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Ros Russell)