Pro-Iran militias in Iraq burn images of Iraq prime minister, Israel

A group of men affiliated with the pro-Iranian Kataib Hezbollah who had been released after a counter-terror raid days ago burned the Israeli and US flags and trampled on photos of Iraq’s prime minister.

It is the latest show of force by Iranian-backed elements in Iraq who are part of the official security forces but increasingly seek to supplant the state the way the Islamic Revolutionary Guards have done in Iran and via Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

The shocking photos from Iraq this evening show the men, who were detained on the evening between June 25 and 26, in crisp new jackets of the Popular Mobilization Forces, trampling and burning images of their own commander in chief. This would be tantamount to a US National Guard unit burning images of the US President or members of Israel’s Border Police burning images of the Prime Minister. There is no precedent historically for a unit off the security forces burning its own commander, except as a show of force that indicates that pro-Iranian groups now control Iraq.

— Nafiseh Kohnavard (@nafisehkBBC) June 29, 2020

This is a contest of wills between Iran and the region on one hand, Iran and the US and Iran and the Iraqi people. Protesters in Iraq have been demonstrating since last October for better standards of living and infrastructure. Pro-Iranian militias, such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Badr and Saraya Khorosani have been implicated in killing hundreds of the protesters, acting on an Iranian model that murdered up to 1,500 protesters last year in Iran.

Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful militia with thousands of dedicated supporters and cadres is the tip of the spear of Iranian influence in Iraq. Once run by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a sanctioned terrorist by the US, it suffered  set back when the US killed Muhandis and IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in January. Muhandis and Soleimani were key to Iran’s influence. With them out of the way the Iranians have struggled to control Iraq’s 150,000 or so militias in the PMU.

Hezbollah sent Mohammed Kawtharani to coordinate and a man named Abu Fadak was raised up to replace Muhandis. Then Esmail Ghaani, the Soleimani replacement, came to Iraq several times, and even went to the Syrian border, to show his presence. But militias like Kataib Hezbollah are also doing Iran’s bidding by firing rockets at US forces in Iraq. There have been dozens of rocket attacks, including at least six since the beginning of June.

— Lawk Ghafuri (@LawkGhafuri) June 29, 2020
Iraq has a new prime minister named Mustafa Kadhimi, a former activist and intelligence chief, who replaced the former prime minister who had resigned due to the killing of protesters. Kadhimi must manage the Covid-19 crises, a budget crises and tensions between the US and Iran. He sent the Iraqi elite Counter-Terrorism Service to raid the Kataib Hezbollah members on June 25 because of information linking these men to attacks on the US. These extrajudicial attacks were outside the orders the unit was supposed to carry out.

These groups like Kataib Hezbollah are all part of the PMU which is part of the security forces and get a state salary since 2018. But they often act with impunity as rogue elements. They have killed three members of the US-led anti-ISIS Coalition and killed one contractor. The US has retaliated with airstrikes in December and March, killing militia members and decimating warehouses.  The militias haven’t backed down though, they also traffic ballistic missiles for Iran and move weapons to Syria.

Kataib Hezbollah even built a base in Albukamal that was blown up in a mysterious June 2018 airstrike. Qais Khazali, who was sanctioned by the US last year and was once detained by the US at Camp Cropper, found with Hezbollah members back in 2007, went to visit Hezbollah in 2017 and threatened Israel.

— Nafiseh Kohnavard (@nafisehkBBC) June 29, 2020

This is why these militia members, after being released on June 29, burned the Israeli and American flags. They view themselves as members of Iran’s “axis of resistance” with loyalty to Iran first. The militia members detained on June 26 had been transferred from the CTS to the PMU’s SDPC on June 26 and then released on June 29. Only 11 were released. They got new jackets from the PMU, part of a new PMU line of brand clothing the group has been showing off in recent months, and they posed next to fake gold chairs, as if they were dignitaries.