According to a report from The Associated Press, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani, visited Tehran’s allies in Iraq last month and delivered a message urging calm and asking militia leaders to refrain from attacking US forces.
Iraqi sources told AP that one of the leaders of the six Iraqi factions Ghaani met with spoke out against the warning. Iraqi militia groups are still angry that the US assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis has still not been avenged.
Ghaani replaced Soleimani as the commander of the Quds Force after he was killed in Baghdad in January 2020. Muhandis was the leader of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, a group of mostly Shia militias that formed in 2014 to fight ISIS.
Anonymous Iraqi Shia political sources told AP that Iran’s influence on these militias has waned since the US killed Soleimani and Muhandis. “Iran isn’t the way it used to be, with 100% control over the militia commanders,” said one Shia political leader.
“What is taking place now is when Ghaani asks for calm, the brigade leaders agree with him. But as soon as he leaves the meeting, they disregard his recommendations,” said another Shia source.
The Biden administration portrayed its recent airstrikes against Iraqi militias in Iraq and Syria as a “message to Iran.” But the AP report demonstrates that the resistance to Washington’s presence in Iraq is more homegrown than the US claims.
Since Biden bombed militia targets in Iraq and Syria in June, attacks on bases housing US troops in both countries have stepped up. This week in Iraq, rocket attacks on US facilities have been a daily occurrence.
After Soleimani and Muhandis were killed, Iraq’s parliament voted unanimously to expel US troops. Since Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi came into office in May 2020, he has been trying to negotiate with the US to work out a timeline on when troops will leave.
The US has agreed to eventually withdraw from Iraq, but no timeline has been set, and those who oppose the US occupation are growing impatient. Khadhimi had previously gotten Iraq’s militias to agree to not fire on US bases while the withdrawal plans were being worked out. But with no withdrawal timeline and increased US airstrikes against the militias, the violence will continue to escalate.
it boggles my mind as to how little US people pay attention to their. Ations constant warfare in Central Asia and middle east.
The deployment of hundreds of thousands of combat ready and those engaged already in such activities goes almost unnoticed.
I understand that war making today is much more sophisticated than that of masses of men anf military armaments charging into each others ranks to batter bludgeon or shoot each other. but damn US killed millions and is killing tens if not hundreds of thousands yearly today had ought to at least. Find
enough people to stand up in defiance to such ongoings.
US population is not even notified when it begins a new wartime move until after the deed is done.
Warfare even for infantry is a hell of a lott easier and safer for US Tech armored troop. As there is no military forces other than N. korea, China and Russia capable of resistance, has instilled into US military a Warrior Consciousness where no cause other than making war is allowed to be found.
The killing is the glory, there leaves very little room for compasdion and dismisses any but own warriors as being avcaimed highly for that killrrr cult .
Why does the US think that Iran is solely responsible for any violence against them. As if the Iraqi population is just being influenced by Iran and doesn’t have any reason of their own to be attacking Americans in Iraq. I can’t imagine that there are too many Iraqi’s that haven’t lost a loved one or had a loved one’s life utterly destroyed by the US over the last 30 years. Whether it be financial devastation by their economy being destroyed by war or the diseases that ran rampant after their country was turned into a large cesspool or the thousands upon thousands left maimed from our relentless bombing campaigns in ’91 and ’03. If I were an Iraqi I would want to slit every American throat I would come in contact with.
Thinking the same.
As if the Iraqi militia has no agency in their own country.
Perhaps the conversation goes something like this:
“Thank you Iran for your support and advice to remain calm, but you are not the ones under occupation now are you?”
Exactly, the PMF – Popular Mobilisation Forces, were setup by a former Iraqi PM and now consist of Shia, Sunni and Christian. The US refers to these groups constantly as “Iranian backed militia” in order to justify constantly attacking them.
Our Western press never bothers to inform us that Iraq is a majority Shia country, not Sunni.
“After Soleimani and Muhandis were killed, Iraq’s parliament voted unanimously to expel US troops.”
Add to that the h*ll that we have imposed on Iraq……
Again it’s on orders from IDF. US has to maintain barrier to transit of food and materiel especially from Iran. And despite their tantrums, US Military can squat its big ass in Iraq virtually unopposed. As for legality, it’s simply N/A for Washington.