Iran militia threatens U.S. troops in aftermath of ISIS defeat in Iraq
14 September 2017World Tribune
As the last pockets of Islamic State (ISIS) resistance are cleared in Iraq, a
new threat to American troops is emerging.
An Iranian Shi'ite militia, the Hizbullah Brigades, warned the United States
that it must leave Iraq when ISIS is defeated or face a new war, Iran's Fars
news agency reported.
Funded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Hizbullah
Brigades, also known as Kata'ib Hizbullah (KH), is the ''largest and most
ruthless Iranian-trained militia fighting in Iraq and Syria,'' Rowan
Scarborough reported for The Washington Times.
''Iranian leaders aren't willing to let U.S. forces stick around, They see the
U.S. commitment as weak, especially on the home front, and they believe that
so long as they use proxies, they can enjoy plausible deniability. After three
decades of not being held to account for their actions, the Revolutionary
Guards has grown cocky.''
A military official told The Washington Times that the U.S. has plans to
counter KH if it begins attacking Americans.
''Regarding the sense of Iranian malign influence, we're trying to alert NATO,
the coalition, the State Department, the UN and the Gulf countries,'' the
military official said. ''It's a really big question. We're very aware of it.
We're watching the move to post-ISIS. What the Iranians are saying is of
significant concern.''
The Hizbullah Brigades, which has about 5,000 fighters, was organized by the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in 2007.
Quds operatives trained the Shi'ites in building improvised explosive devices
and rocket systems that ultimately killed about 500 U.S. personnel, according
to the Pentagon.
Analysts say Iran's broader goal is ''to spread a crescent of Shi'ite hegemony
across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon,'' the report said.
''With the Iranians, clearly the goal is a pathway all the way to Lebanese
Hizbullah,'' the military official said.
''The National Council of Resistance of Iran said Iran's 2015 nuclear deal
with the Obama administration provided Teheran with billions of dollars to
increase the IRGC's budget and pay various militias.''
The military official said the U.S.-led coalition's downing of an armed drone
in Syria in June shows how closely it watches Iran's proxies. U.S. Central
Command described the drone's operators as ''pro-regime.''
''Our actions speak for ourselves,'' the U.S. source said. ''We've shown that
if they come even close to threatening any position, we're going to take
action in self-defense. We absolutely take it seriously.''
The official said U.S. commanders talk to the Russians about the Shi'ite
militia activities because Russian officials ''talk to people we don't talk
to.''
Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, who commanded troops in Iraq, said
post-ISIS American diplomacy must persuade the Iraqi government to blunt KH's
anti-American messaging in the country and make U.S. troop security a top
priority.
Part of KH's propaganda war via Iranian media is to tell Shi'ites falsely that
the U.S. created ISIS and is helping it on the battlefield.
Dubik, an analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War,
questioned whether the Trump administration is planning for a new Iraq.
''Reading between the public statements does not lead me to conclude we have a
strategy beyond 'eject ISIS,' '' he said.
Dubik said one important agreement would be to have U.S. intelligence and
special operations forces working closely with Iraq's counterterrorism
personnel to track Iran's militias.
Washington must also issue a clear warning to Teheran, Dubik said, one that
would ''make clear our intent to expose their nefarious actions, something
that at times we refused to do, and to protect our own forces.''
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