Iraqi Forces Raid Iranian-backed Militias

Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Agency has announced that it arrested 13 members of an armed faction, along with their leader, during a nighttime operation south of the capital Baghdad.

The National Iraqi News Agency, NINA, reported that the agency said the arrests had taken place in the Al-Durah area, south of Baghdad. The agency also seized a missile workshop that was used to produce missiles fired on the Green Zone – Baghdad’s secure government zone in the center of the city, established after the 2003 war – and Iraqi camps hosting the international coalition.

Iraqi officials and paramilitary sources also said security forces raided the headquarters of an Iranian-backed faction in southern Baghdad, late on 25 June, arresting more than ten members, according to Reuters.

Ahmad Al-Asadi, the official spokesman for the Al-Fatah Coalition parliamentary bloc, demanded the release of those arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Agency's forces, as well as the withdrawal of the Popular Mobilization Forces from the Green Zone, according to NINA.

Hassan Salem, an Iraqi MP, warned the Sadiqun parliamentary bloc against attacking the Popular Mobilization Forces, saying in a tweet: "Whoever attacks the Popular Mobilization Forces will have the same fate as ISIS, whether that be America or anyone else."

For his part, Abu Ali Al-Askari, a security spokesman for the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, a pro-Iranian military faction in Iraq, launched a violent attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazimi on 26 June, describing him as a US agent and a "treacherous monster," threatening him with punishment and "torture," saying: "We are waiting for you."

It has also been claimed that militia supporters who roamed the streets of the capital earlier at dawn, showing off their strength and weapons while hurling threatening messages and warnings against anyone who challenged them, promised to force the release of the detainees that were arrested on the night of 25 June. 

For his part, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazimi confirmed in a tweet that he is not a member of a party or a specific bloc, and that his only task is to fulfill the people's demand for fair elections, adding that he will not allow anyone to threaten to destroy the state.

Al-Kazimi also said he would be strict with armed factions targeting American facilities.

Al-Kazimi continued: "We must not allow interventions that threaten Iraqi sovereignty or the social fabric of Iraq, and we will not allow the escapades of foreign parties within Iraq. We should note that billions of dollars are lost annually at border crossings, and sometimes gangs, groups, bandits, and influential people are controlling these crossings at the expense of the state. Soon there will be a campaign to take back these crossings."

Raad Hashim, a journalist and researcher on Iraqi affairs, posted a video clip on his Twitter account of the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades as they showed their strength on the streets of Baghdad after the Counter-Terrorism Agency arrested a number of its militants.

Journalist Dr. Ali Al-Jabiri said in a tweet that: "The puppet militia of the Hezbollah Brigades displays its strength on the streets of Baghdad at dawn on 26 June, in a new challenge to the authority of the state! If the security forces do not put an end to the recklessness of Khamenei's militias in Iraq, they will not be deterred except by the October revolutionaries, who defeated all of Soleimani's militias and forced their headquarters to close at the onset of the great October revolution."

The raid carried out by the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Agency, concerning an Iraqi security force against a strong Iranian-backed paramilitary faction, and specifically targeting the Hezbollah Brigades – which US officials accuse of launching missiles at bases hosting US forces and other facilities in Iraq – is the most daring in recent years.

On 13 June, the Brigades also targeted a base north of Baghdad where forces of the US-led coalition were based. On 8 June, two missiles struck the land around the Baghdad airport complex, while an unguided missile also landed near the US Embassy in the Green Zone.

The frequency of such attacks has increased since the assassination of the Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards expeditionary Quds Force, Ghassem Soleimani, and the leader of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Committee, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, in a US airstrike in Baghdad on 3 January. 

In a statement last week, Muqtada Al-Sadr demanded that the United States withdraw its "occupying" forces from the country, while in a statement made by the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades on 20 June, the militia renewed its threat to target US forces inside Iraq if it did not withdraw.