An Iran-backed militia group in Iraq says it is suspending attacks on U.S. troops after a drone attack killed three soldiers early Sunday, but the Department of Defense is casting doubt on those claims. 

The Iraq-based Kataeb Hezbollah said Tuesday it was suspending ‘military and security operations against the occupying forces to avoid any embarrassment for the Iraqi government.’ 

The group is one of multiple Iranian proxies in the region that are believed responsible for carrying out attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq, Syria, and, most recently, Jordan over the past several months. The groups say the attacks are in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel in its ongoing offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza and the mounting death toll of Palestinian civilians. 

Since Oct. 17, there have been at least 165 attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Of these, 66 were in Iraq, 98 were in Syria, and one was in Jordan. Meanwhile, Houthi militants stationed in Yemen have been firing upon commercial vessels in the Red Sea – prompting retaliatory strikes from the U.S. and its allies. 

Per Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, Kataeb Hezbollah said it would support Palestinians in Gaza in other ways and told its fighters not to respond even if the U.S. were to strike. 

Asked for his reaction to the group’s message, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said, ‘actions speak louder than words.’ 

‘I don’t think that we could be any more clear that we have called on the Iranian proxy groups to stop their attacks. They have not. And so we will respond in a time and manner of our choosing,’ he said. ‘When I say, ‘actions speak louder than words, there have been three attacks – to my knowledge – since the 28th of January. And I’ll just leave it there.’ 

President Biden has faced mounting pressure to respond after three U.S. soldiers were killed and more than 40 were injured in an overnight drone strike at a base in Jordan near the Syrian border. 

Biden blamed the attack on Iran-backed militias and vowed that the U.S. ‘shall respond.’ At the same time, administration officials have repeatedly said the U.S. has no desire to escalate tensions with Iran. 

The attack marked a significant escalation of violence in the onslaught of attacks since Oct. 17 as it was the first time U.S. troops had been killed by enemy fire. 

Since October, the Biden administration has sent about $121 million in taxpayer funds to UNRWA, the U.N. agency under scrutiny for its alleged ties to Hamas, the State Department said Tuesday.

A remaining $300,000 in appropriated funds for this fiscal year was supposed to be delivered to the humanitarian relief organization in the next few weeks. But the U.S. froze those funds over allegations that some UNRWA members participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. 

‘That funding has been suspended,’ Miller told reporters at the State Department daily press briefing. He added that it’s ‘impossible’ to say how much more the U.S. could provide to UNRWA this fiscal year if the funds are unfrozen because the government is operating under a continuing resolution. 

‘We don’t know how much overall funding will be available for this fiscal year, and that would impact how much that we would be able to provide UNRWA,’ Miller said. ‘Historically, we have typically provided somewhere between $300 and $400 million a year in funding.’ 

The Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to UNRWA, reversing former President Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding to the group. Biden officials say the funds provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, while critics say the group is ‘effectively a branch of Hamas.’

UNRWA’s ties to Hamas have come into focus in recent weeks after Israel provided the Biden administration with a new dossier containing information about how some 13 agency staffers allegedly assisted or supported the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7.

The Biden administration announced last week it has temporarily paused ‘additional’ funding to UNRWA in response to the dossier. Germany, Italy, Australia, Finland, Netherlands and Switzerland have also joined the boycott following the accusations, which have already resulted in the termination of multiple staffers.

Miller said the next expected payment to UNRWA would happen over the summer and that the amount would depend on how much money Congress approves for the agency in Biden’s $106 billion supplemental package request.

Despite the terrorism allegations, the White House has defended UNRWA, insisting that the entire agency should not be judged by the purported actions of 13 people.

‘We very much support the work that UNRWA does, we think it’s critical,’ Miller said. ‘There is no other humanitarian player in Gaza who can provide food, medicine at the scale that UNRWA does. 

‘We want to see that work continued, which is why it is so important that the United Nations take this matter seriously, that they investigate it, that there is accountability for anyone who is found to engage in wrongdoing, and that they take whatever other measures are appropriate to ensure that this sort of thing cannot happen again,’ he said.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state in the Trump administration, blasted the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as ‘truly evil’ for its infiltration of American institutions during a House select committee hearing on Tuesday – and he went on to torch Chinese President Xi Jinping for never being held accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed on the world.

In a bipartisan show of support, Pompeo and Leon Panetta, former secretary of defense in the Obama administration, testified Tuesday before the House select committee hearing titled ‘Authoritarian Alignment: The CCP’s Support for America’s Adversaries.’

‘We should never forget this information space on social media and how the Chinese Communist Party has communist-directed entities on every one of our children’s cellphones passing information that is deeply filtered, designed for our young people here to undermine their idea and their understanding of America and our foundational ideas,’ Pompeo said. ‘This is the very Xi Jinping that unleashed a virus upon the world that killed millions of people, including over a million people in the United States. It gets seldom referenced.’

‘It’s hard to imagine the staggering impact that COVID had on the world, and yet no one’s held Xi Jinping accountable, not for the leak from his lab, which happened,’ Pompeo continued. ‘Not for the fact that once he was aware he had a leak from his lab, of a relatively lethal, relatively contagious virus, he foisted it upon the world. He made a decision to hide the data, hide the information, to off the researchers and to put thousands of people on airplanes and transit them across the world with the death and destruction and the economic harm that followed from that. This is the very same Xi Jinping that’s working here in the United States against us.’

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., noted how Pompeo warned America’s governors not to get too entwined with the CCP.

‘As Washington becomes more aware of the China threat, the CCP has targeted many of our states’ governors. This morning, the Washington Post published a story about the CCP’s ‘united front’ efforts [in] amping up their engagement with our nation’s mayors, including the mayor of Carmel, Indiana, in my state,’ Banks said to Pompeo. ‘The former mayor, he just left office, who went on lavish trips to China and engaged at a high level with Chinese officials in their country. Why should our nation’s mayors stray away from these types of entanglements with the sister cities projects and other CCP united front efforts?’

In Wisconsin, the home state of Chair Mike Gallagher, Pompeo said, ‘They have made a hard place for your state’s legislative body.’

‘They are determined to propagate their efforts. They want to make friends so that when they are confronted, they can turn to their friends and say, ‘We’re not such bad guys after all,” Pompeo said. ‘The Chinese Communist Party is truly evil, they will work at every level of government, they will work against our private sector as well. They’ll show up at PTA meetings, if that’s what it takes. This is an effort on every level of the Chinese Communist Party.’

‘When the Chinese Communist Party shows up at your school and offers a free swing set, it is not because they care about the health of your children,’ Pompeo added. ‘That’s maybe the simplest way to articulate sister cities programs and the Confucius Institutes. On all of these ‘united front’ efforts inside our country … they may show up and give you some temporary lift, but in the end, it is about them, not about us.’

Breaking with the bipartisan nature of the hearing, Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., said Jan. 6, 2021, was Xi’s ‘best day in office’ and demanded that Pompeo state under oath ‘that Joe Biden was duly elected in a free and fair election.’

In response, Pompeo said, ‘Well, so much for bipartisanship of this committee. Well done, sir, you have destroyed that.’

‘Of course, President Biden is the duly elected president of the United States,’ Pompeo said.

‘I wish Secretary Clinton would be so clear about her election as well,’ he added.

Pompeo went on to say, ‘We did have a peaceful transition of power from the Trump administration to the Biden administration. I was present for that.’

‘We’ll have partisan disagreements on many things,’ Pompeo said. ‘It is a factual matter that the world was in less conflict three years ago than it is today. Secretary [Antony] Blinken said just yesterday that not since 1973 has the Middle East been so dangerous. I agree with him on that. It was safer three years ago because we established a deterrence model that was successful in preventing the invasion of Europe, the debacle in Afghanistan, and the good work that we did – you’ll recall that the Trump administration was actually the first administration to provide defense weapons systems to Ukraine when the Obama administration had concluded it could not or would not do so. These were things that kept the American people safe. It wasn’t partisan, it wasn’t political. It was good policy.’

Pompeo and Panetta, who both also served as CIA directors, describe themselves as good friends. They both also addressed the conflict in Ukraine.

‘The only way to try to avoid war with China, the only way to deal with China, is from strength,’ Panetta said. ‘Both China and Russia became more aggressive when they sensed weakness on the part of the U.S. And for that reason, we must take strong action to arm and train Taiwan to defend itself, to strengthen our force posture, to invest in the next generation of military technology, to bolster our alliances, and to maintain strong export controls on critical technologies.’

‘We lost deterrence in Ukraine,’ Pompeo said later in the hearing. ‘We shouldn’t applaud ourselves for rallying NATO. That’s great, I’m glad the Europeans stood up. But we should remember, we did not conduct American foreign policy with the diplomatic excellence and the military power to actually convince Putin not to invade Ukraine. We have to win these things. It is insufficient to catch incoming missiles. You have to hold your adversary at risk.’

‘My effort as secretary of state was to remind the world if we don’t hold the CCP at risk – if we simply play defense economically, diplomatically; we allow a spy balloon to travel over our country for five days and then hold a press conference announcing what brilliance it was to fire, shoot it down over South Carolina – Xi Jinping gets that he’s on offense, we’re on defense,’ he added. ‘And that is not a good place for the United States to be.’

The Justice Department is investigating ‘Squad’ member Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., over the alleged misuse of government funds intended to pay for her security, two sources tell Fox News.

The probe is related to allegations of federal security money being spent improperly, the sources said.

A subpoena announcement was read on the House floor Monday, and sources said it was related to the investigation into Bush.

The Justice Department declined to comment. 

Responding to Fox News Digital, Bush’s office provided a statement confirming the ‘Department of Justice is reviewing my campaign’s spending on security services.’ 

The congresswoman blamed ‘right-wing organizations’ for the DOJ probe, as well as other investigations into the matter by the Federal Election Commission and the House Committee on Ethics. ‘I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services. Any reporting that I have used federal funds for personal security is simply false,’ she said in part. 

One of those watchdog groups, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), reacted to news of the Justice Department probe and defended having filed an official complaint with the FEC in 2023 regarding the details of repeated payments Bush made to a man who is now her current husband.

‘In her own FEC filings the payments were initially characterized as being for ‘security.’ Among the many troubling facts involved that we strongly felt justified an investigation were her close personal relationship, her large payments to others for the same services at the same time, and that her husband reportedly didn’t have a license to provide those services,’ FACT executive director Kendra Arnold said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. 

‘Unfortunately, after our complaint was filed, Rep. Bush changed the language on her disclosure describing the continuing payments to her husband to something amorphous and vague, ‘wage payments,’ which at a minimum is contrary to the purpose of the law to clearly describe the purposes of campaign disbursements,’ she said. ‘Our hope, as it always is with our complaints, is that a thorough and fair investigation reveals the truth of the matter and whether any legal violations have occurred.’

Arnold added, ‘The rules and laws governing the use and disclosure of federal campaign expenditures are written to ensure that those in Congress elected to represent us do so without personally profiting from their office. The facts alone speak to the need for an investigation, citizens deserve the truth, and we are glad that several governmental bodies have found an investigation is merited and look forward to the outcomes.’

In a message read aloud by a House clerk on Monday to notify Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland relayed that his office received a grand jury subpoena for documents issued by the Justice Department and added that the sergeant of arms office would comply with that subpoena. The message did not elaborate further.

Speculation swirled on social media about what the DOJ probe could be about, including whether it was related to Jan. 6, but sources later pointed to Bush instead. 

Bush notably has spent more than $500,000 on her own private security while publicly advocating for the defund the police movement. 

PunchBowl News first reported the Justice Department is conducting a criminal probe into Bush, connected with the House sergeant at arms subpoena.

Bush’s husband and former security guard, Cortney Merritts, who she married in February 2023, has pocketed more than $100,000 in payments since Bush added him to her campaign’s payroll in January 2022 for what they marked as ‘security’ payments before switching their description to ‘wage expenses’ in April, Fox News Digital previously reported.

In March 2023, Bush was hit with two FEC complaints over security payments she made to her new husband.

One complaint comes from the Committee to Defeat the President, an anti-Biden super PAC, which alleges Bush has ‘flouted’ federal campaign finance laws by paying Merritts $60,000 for security in 2022. Merritts does not have a license to perform security functions in the congresswoman’s district.

Bush’s campaign also paid $225,281 to the St. Louis-based PEACE Security firm for personal protection throughout 2022. Bush and Merritts have been together since before she entered Congress in 2021, a press release from her office said.

FACT also filed a complaint to ask the FEC to investigate whether Bush ‘used campaign funds for personal use,’ citing the $60,000 payment in 2022 for security services provided to Merritts.

‘It appears Rep. Bush’s campaign may have made payments for services that were unnecessary or above fair market value because of her personal relationship with the payee,’ Arnold wrote in the complaint at the time. ‘If so, these payments would qualify as either impermissible payments to a family member or an impermissible gift.’

‘Therefore, we request the FEC investigate whether Rep. Bush converted campaign funds for personal use by paying a salary that was not for bona fide services at fair market value,’ the complaint said. ‘Ultimately, if one or more campaign laws are found to have been broken, we request the FEC hold the respondents accountable.’

Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report.

House GOP leaders are potentially staring down a new rebellion within the Republican Conference – this time from front-line moderates in New York and California.

Republicans who represent the politically fickle suburbs outside major cities there and elsewhere are frustrated that Congress’ tax bill does not touch state and local tax (SALT) deductions.

Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., who represents part of Long Island, suggested to reporters on Tuesday morning that he and his colleagues would even consider deliberately taking down GOP bills by voting against procedural measures known as ‘rule’ votes.

‘We’re gonna assess all of our options,’ LaLota said. ‘I want to be in a conference where I live on a two-way street, where my input is valued, my constituents’ input is valued. I voted for a lot of things over the last 13 or 14 months, helped out a lot of my teammates.’

He said his coalition was currently in talks with the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, which has weaponized rule votes several times this Congress to protest GOP leadership’s handling of government spending.

‘There’s an odd coalition that’s formed between Freedom Caucus members and the SALT caucus members,’ he said. ‘Like me, they’re frustrated about the process. We want this to be a member-driven conference, the speaker promised us that.’

That opposition to the tax bill is likely to prompt Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to bring it for a vote under suspension, which bypasses the procedural rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage to two-thirds rather than a simple majority. With the GOP’s two-seat majority, that means they’ll need Democratic votes.

Many SALT Republicans were quick to point out that they represent moderate districts, including those won by President Biden in 2020, and argued that a failure to address SALT – specifically raising the current $10,000 deduction cap – could cost Republicans the majority.

‘Yeah, very much so,’ one source close to SALT discussions told Fox News Digital when asked if those members were angry at being sidelined.

‘There have been meetings, we’ve had conversations, and effectively what we’re hearing from the speaker’s office is, we would love to help you, but you know, effectively having SALT in there would kill the bill,’ the source said. ‘But the reality is, is that the guy is most affected by this issue or this tax bill and with this issue out of it are the swing seats.’

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., another lawmaker in SALT discussions, said he disagreed with tanking rule votes but understood the frustration.

‘As a team, we should be passing rules, letting things come to the floor for a vote,’ he said. ‘But I understand the frustration that the New Yorkers are feeling obviously on this issue.’

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., was blunt with his anger despite indicating support for the existing parts of the tax bill.

‘To not include a SALT fix is idiotic, and it’s political malpractice,’ Lawler said. ‘The failure to include that provision in this tax bill was foolish.’

Three sources told Fox News Digital late last week that Johnson intends to bring the bill to the floor this week for a vote under suspension, but so far it has not been noted in the legislative calendar.

Johnson did not say whether he intends to bring the bill for a vote this week when asked by Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Fox News’ Tyler Olsen contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A Republican congressman has introduced legislation that would permanently ban the United States from funding UNRWA, a United Nations agency that has funneled hundreds of millions in aid meant to help Palestinians in Gaza but has come under fire for its ties to Hamas.

New Jersey GOP Congressman Chris Smith has introduced a bill, known as the ‘‘Stop Support United Nations Relief and Works Agency Act of 2024’’, that would cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The United States may not make any voluntary or involuntary contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (referred to in this Act as ‘‘UNRWA’’), to any successor or related entity, or to the regular budget of the United Nations for the support of UNRWA or a successor entity,’  the bill states.

The Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to UNRWA, reversing a Trump decision to cut funding to the group, which it says is an effort to provide humanitarian aid while critics say the group is ‘effectively a branch of Hamas.’

Those ties to Hamas have come into focus in recent weeks after Israel  provided the Biden administration with a new dossier containing information about how staffers for a United Nations agency assisted or supported the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7.

The Biden administration announced last week it has temporarily paused ‘additional’ funding to UNRWA in response to the dossier. Germany, Italy, Australia, Finland, Netherlands and Switzerland have also joined the boycott following the accusations, which have already resulted in the termination of multiple staffers.

On Monday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby urged the public not to write off UNRWA’s humanitarian efforts as a whole.

‘But you’ve got 13,000 UNRWA employees,’ Kirby said. ‘You have 13,000 of them in Gaza alone, and as I said last week, let’s not impugn the good work of a whole agency because of the potential bad actions here by a small number.’

UNRWA has faced scrutiny in recent years even before the Hamas attack from critics who say the group has not done enough to prevent aid from reaching the hands of Hamas terrorists. UNRWA locations have reportedly housed Hamas activities and spread Hamas propaganda in schools. 

UN Watch reported earlier this year that UNRWA schools were complicit in teaching children to hate Jewish people and glorify terrorism. UN Watch reported that UNRWA has acknowledged that teachers ‘mistakenly’ produced and distributed inciting material but promised in 2021 that it no longer circulates such material.

UNRWA acknowledged in 2014, and condemned, Hamas missiles that were found at one of its schools in Gaza twice in one week. 

‘UNRWA strongly and unequivocally condemns the group or groups responsible for this flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law,’ the group said at the time.

The New York Post reported this week that roughly 10% of UNRWA staffers have links to Hamas.

‘The United Nations—and UNRWA especially—is unquestionably the world’s foremost legitimizer of antisemitism, including in its most virulent and violent forms,’ Rep. Smith, the Chair of the House Global Human Rights and International Organizations, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

‘UNRWA—which provides education in hatred of Jews through their textbooks, curricula, summer camps, and official media—has contributed to the perversity we saw performed by Hamas during its October 7 terror attack,’ Smith added. 

‘We need a comprehensive, fact-based approach to UNRWA that stops all funding and conditions future funding on a complete head-to-toe reform and restructuring of UNRWA.’

Smith is set to host a joint subcommittee hearing on Tuesday at 2 p.m. with the goal of ‘examining the mission and failures’ of UNRWA.

‘The monstrous and genocidal atrocities we have seen pouring out of Gaza since October 7 are antisemitic hate crimes—the logical consequence of the unbridled antisemitism fomented and enabled by UNRWA,’ Smith said.

Fox News Digital reached out to UNRWA and the White House for comment but did not receive a response.