A US drone strike targeting a vehicle in Baghdad on Wednesday killed three members of Kataib Hezbollah, including a high-ranking commander, marking another US escalation in Iraq.
Kataib Hezbollah is a Shia militia that’s part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of Iraqi militias that was founded in 2014 to fight ISIS. The PMF is part of Iraq’s security forces, and the Iraqi government has been furious over recent US airstrikes against the PMF.
A PMF official speaking to Rudaw identified the slain Kataib Hezbollah commander as Abu Baqir al-Saadi. US Central Command released a statement confirming the US was behind the drone strike.
CENTCOM said the assassination was in response to attacks on US troops in the region. The command claimed that al-Saadi was responsible for attacks on US troops. CENTCOM said its forces “conducted a unilateral strike in Iraq in response to the attacks on US service members, killing a Kataib Hezbollah commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on US forces in the region.”
The drone strike has outraged many in Iraq and sparked protests near the US embassy in Baghdad. According to AP, Iraqi security forces have closed off Baghdad’s Green Zone, where most foreign diplomatic missions are located, in response to calls for protesters to storm the US embassy.
The drone strike came a few days after the US launched heavy airstrikes across eastern Syria and western Iraq that it said was retaliation for the drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three US troops. Before the US launched the bombing campaign, Kataib Hezbollah announced it was suspending military operations against the US.
A group that calls itself the Islamic Resistance of Iraq (IRI) has taken credit for most of the attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria that started in October in response to US support for the Israeli slaughter in Gaza. Kataib Hezbollah is believed to be part of the IRI.
Mission Accomplished!!!
https://metsmerizedonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/President-George-W.-Bush-Mission-Accomplished.jpg
It was! A gift that has kept on giving to MICIMATT for 22 years …
That was 911. All the BS over the years has flowed from that day.
And that day flowed from all the suffering and destruction the US caused in the Middle East in the preceding years.
So true. I used to tell people in the early 2000’s that Arabs don’t hate America for its freedom, but because it has been the policy of the American government to systematically deny them theirs.
Chalmers Johnson issued a warning with “Blowback; costs and consequences of American Empire”
Johnson’s books are treasured resources in my library that I will always come back to.
The clash between civilizations also is based on 3rd world reactionary though, home grown corruption, economic issues,fear of change,and the need no secure converts
The American hegemon has consistently supported politically, armed, and if needed enforced the rule of almost every Arab despot over the last 50 years. There are probably a few that weren’t (ala Gaddafi), but that is the exception not the rule. As long as the dictators ensure “open markets” for western multinationals the support continues. Pick a country in the Arab world and I guarantee you that at some point the USA has supported the dictator of that country or has tried to overthrow the government to install a “friendly” regime. This hegemon in the Middle East is in the process of collapsing if the current trends are any indication.
The torture chambers were a gift to the recruiting efforts of “terrorists”. By the way, who is a terrorist? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb2z0XwMtH8
Once again, despite all the BS you may have read both in the MSM and the alternative media about how “the US administration doesn’t want a wider war”, the exact opposite is true.
Whenever you here that phrase from someone, know that you’re reading or listening to someone who doesn’t have a clue what’s really going on.
Yea, they make me want to barf when I hear people in the administration say, “no-one wants a war”. You lying sacks of dung, of course you and your mutual benefactors in the Military Offense Industry wants war, and more of it.
Except for the neocon loonies and the Israel lobby, who would love one, I don’t think they want a wider war in the region. The comparatively sane people in the administration and most of the uniformed folks in the Pentagon know that an actual hot war with Iran would be an expensive, high-risk mess and the US probably couldn’t “win” without going to lengths that might trigger world war.
What they do want, and what they think they can get away with, is launching strikes like this one with impunity. They almost always get away with this sort of behavior, so why not this time? It never occurs to them that this time might be different.
Biden, the neocon loonies, and the Israel lobby, ARE the people in charge. So, yes, the US administration – that is, the people in charge – DO want a wider war.
There are next to no sane people in Congress, either, and very few in the Pentagon who understand the consequences of attacking Iran. Certainly the Air Force and Navy don’t comprehend it; they still think they’re invulnerable.
I think you have too narrow and rigid a view of this.
There’s no such thing, in Washington, as the people in charge. It’s a large, complex, confused clusterfumble with disparate players, shifting alliances and power and influence. It is absolutely true that the Israel lobby, along with the neocons — many but not all of whom are part of the lobby — have substantial control of US Middle East policy, but they do not have the necessary power and authority to determine whether or not the US engages in a real live hot war with a major adversary, not even in that region — certainly not in the wake of the disaster that ensued from the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which the whole world knows is owned by the neocons (also by the Israel lobby, but fewer understand that).
I see no evidence that the Pentagon brass is eager for a hot war with Iran. They created a contingency plan (“Support Sentry”) for that a couple of years ago and there’s no question that they are proceeding as if it might happen, but the planning has also made it clear to them that the costs would be very high and that the US would have a difficult time achieving anything like victory using available forces.
Also I’m sure none of them have forgotten the “Millennium Challenge” war game at the beginning of this century, when a Red team acting as a notional Iran kicked the hell out of the Good Guys in blue, although the game seems to have been rigged to assure an ultimate US victory.
And this is an election year. There isn’t a chance in the world that starting a war with Iran would result in more votes for Biden. Quite the opposite, probably.
But, as I have repeatedly said, although they don’t want to start a real war, they might do just that. They’re dumb, reckless, and they like to bomb things.
You just don’t get it. Congress is utterly under control of the Israeli Lobby. Biden is a neocon – he has repeatedly explicitly stated “I’m a Zionist” – and is controlled by Zionist neocons.
The US Pentagon does what it’s told. Period.
So nothing you’ve said is relevant. I reiterate: they WANT a war. They just don’t want to be BLAMED for starting the war. That’s been true of US administrations going back a century.
Get a clue. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/80c6eac57c5df8aa8b9bd1c8c0a18b1a9125acac1e3addf58c387cbb354ba4f2.jpg
What would shareholders in defense and banking stocks say to less product sold, ergo less profits?
Bomb-onomics, better than Bidenomics as far as the military is concerned.
You know, Richard, you don’t make your posts more compelling by almost always responding to disagreement by doubling down on arrogant asshole behavior. I know you don’t care, because you are famous around the net for doing just that, but if you want to be effective rather than, mostly, annoying, you might think about it.
It might also be a good idea to consider, at least briefly, the possibility that your views and understanding are not quite the same as indisputable revealed truth.
He’s the guy who said Russia would destroy Ukraine in two weeks. So, there is that.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db1c8bf8bd97edc44bce47dcf3b98d225177850e78ee64cd7db45a7d8d26a73d.jpg
Yes, Richard, we know.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1600c98739219ccb8eb659ef6bb74ad662bc8ef46670041d28f8e9ebd8a9907a.jpg
you want a wider war too Hack we know your type, Russian stooges who cheerlead war and have hijacked these comments.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/314f57f1bea741609b8c94d0fd08eebb3497cbb1e647f71ba0067c3164ebb06f.jpg
The Russian stooges are in the Kremlin waging their invasion and annexation of Ukraine right now
They and their supporters are the ones cheerleading their BS war.
Well it might be partly true. The US regime and its movers and shakers consists of roughly three factions: those who want a war against Iran first, those who want a war against China first, and those who are for as long as their fantasies permit still delusionally committed to defeat Russia via the sacrifice of Ukraine first. All of them want all other wars too but in a different order. And of course there is a small minority of devotees, because the stupid truly is infinite, who’d like all of wars all at once, fully confident that America can do anything, for it is that exceptional. And that about exhausts all possible configurations of political thought acceptable in those circles.
It is the conceit that America has not been attacked by another force since 1812, that we are protected by two large bodies of water, with friendly nations to the North and to the South.
Stop the We, phony.
Duh-Pearl Harbor,the world trade center.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b3a318d5e3eb25c048e196b7a62cf78ea7c8dba4b62f85a75afc746ff0f0951d.jpg
I’m positive it wasn’t a civilian and his family.
American People better understand very clearly, that our Soldiers are not welcome in countries where we have destroyed their infrastructure, destroyed their cities, killed hundreds of thousands, destroyed their economies and created Mass Migration. Europeans who help our Government do acts of WAR without authorization, are acting like terrorist themselves. If the USA, Europe, UK, etc., want migrants to stop coming to their countries for survival, STOP the bombing and killing in their homeland, so they can and will want to return. All Syrians, Iraqis, Palestinians, Libyans, do not want to live in tents, slums, etc. so STOP bombing their lands and let them return. Nothing good comes from these acts of violence. They do NOT want us in their countries!
…so I’m clear on this :
The USA supports Iraq against Iran in the ’80s to then attack Iraq in the ’90s and ’00s and then ally with Iraq against Iran and against ISIS except in Syria where the USA supported ISIS against Syria and supported the Turks against Iraqi ISIS except where the Turks were against the Kurds whom the USA supported(ish) against Iraq in the ’80s until they were allies in the 00’s with Iraq, and now the USA has attacked an Iraqi security militia (who was an ally against Iraqi ISIS) because it was actually sort-of an enemy because someone in the militia was a member of an ally’s enemy ?
Yep.
Excellent analysis. Bravo!
That is classic.
supported(ish)
that is the take-away right there.
IMO you are one of the smart guys.
wait, everybody here is a smart guy …
damnit i am formulating a contest in my head to determine who is the very most smartest guy and then i will write that persons name onto my ballot.
because at no time will i ever vote for the lesser of two evils.
what
edit) = WTF will the election board say when they see Uncle Sapien written into the write-in slot
edit #2) = it will be extra hilarious if i write in “Agent Julio” on my ballot. nobody will see the humor of that except for the CIA guys who are the only guys who are actually paying attention.
Aaron Mate gets it (as usual):
Aaron Maté (The GrayZone) : Congress Wants War Without Declaring It
He’s right – everyone wants war – they just don’t want to be blamed for it. I’ve said this over and over. Nice to see another very smart guy gets it. Aaron is one of the two best journalists existing – his partner at The Grayzone, Max Blumenthal, is the other.
I watched the podcast with Max Blumenthal. Excellent.
Im sure that will calm things down…I mean , when they did this in the past the attacks stopped…..what? They didnt?
An airstrike inside the capital city of our “ally” Iraq, a “friendly” country in which our forces are stationed? What is wrong with that picture?
Was that a rhetorical question or do you want an answer? …Oh, $hit. You already know the answer. That’s actually good because I wouldn’t know where to start from all the wrongs.
he did put quotation marks
LOL. I know. I was just messing with him.
And not for the first time, the Iranian general was assassinated in Iraq too.
Why do they hate us so much?
The US never misses an opportunity to escalate.
the Biden people must be very envious, the Hezbollah have so many more competent leaders to replace them. Compare the incompetent leadership trash we have.
Our leaders are just like Hezbollah’s-they want war.
The Hezbollah people are smarter.
yes = our leaders want war and evidently so does the Hezbollahs
this is the very first time that i have up-voted one of your comments.
Colombo: One more thing. Are you trying to get over a 100 million Shiites to hate us more?
Call it what it is, an “assassination”, a CIA specialty. It used to be more often helicopter crashes.
Always this US line about killing a “high ranking commander” or “the number 1 (or 2 or 3) guy” or something similar. So what? If they were talking about some tiny group, then, OK, maybe, you can chop off the head and the body will die. But with large factions, militias, movements, military and paramilitary organizations of any kind, they don’t depend on any one, two, or three men, no matter how high up they are, how important they are, or whether they were directly involved in planning or executing attacks or not. If this guy is indeed dead, I’m pretty sure that Kataib Hezbullah has someone in line to take his place. And somebody behind the replacement guy. Ad (almost) infinitum.
Shia militias in Iraq exist for various reasons…to take on ISIS, to oppose US/Israeli hegemony, to fight for Shia dominance within Iraq, and simply because every community in weak state countries feels the need to form and maintain armed militias to protect their interests. Those reasons are not going to die with Mr. Baqir al-Saadi. Nor are the militias. The notion is that targetted killing of the top leadership will somehow, what? Make them stop opposing the USA? Get rid of them altogether? How does that work? At best, a change in personnel at the top might cause a slight, temporary reduction in their effectiveness. The US has been playing this kind of tit for tat, “kill the number whatever guy” game since 9/11, and even before that, and yet Arab and Muslim resistance movements, and able men willing to lead them, seem to be no thinner on the ground than before.
Their replacements grow like mushrooms.
The successors are waiting in line. Of course.
US commanders probably aren’t stupid enough to think that killing militia commanders will have desirable (for the US) long-term effects. But it plays well with the benighted home crowd (usually) and because the home crowd has an incredibly short collective memory, the Good Guys™ can get good press again next year, when they kill Senior Commander #2 of the Bad Guys™ for the third time.
Bernhard at MoA on this topic – he correctly notes that this indicates deliberate US escalation, as I said:
U.S. Escalates War – Strikes Group Which Had Followed Orders To Stand Down
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/02/us-escalates-war-strikes-group-which-had-followed-orders-to-stand-down.html
There’s a song I keep hearing in my head. It’s by David Bowie, from the soundtrack for the film “Cat People”.
It’s called “Putting Out Fires With Gasoline”.
Iraq War Part III. Here we go.