Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, commander of the foreign operations Quds Force unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), paid an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Sunday for meetings with Iran-controlled politicians and militia groups — a clear attempt by Iran to influence the new government that is taking shape in Iraq.
The American embassy in Baghdad warned U.S. citizens in Iraq on Wednesday that they should leave the country as soon as possible, in part due to the Iraqi government not doing enough to prevent attacks or protect victims.
The Emirati newspaper the National reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources, that Hezbollah is not planning to aid Iran.
The leaders of some of the most powerful Iran-backed terror groups in Iraq, including the notorious Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), are considering disarming, Reuters reported on Monday, in response to threats of airstrikes from President Donald Trump.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani told Bloomberg News in an interview published Tuesday that he believes there “is no need” for troops from America or other members of the coalition against the Islamic State to remain in the country, suggesting he will soon expel them.
The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, claimed on Tuesday that his rogue regime is “broadening the battlefront” against Israel and America to hasten the collapse of both nations.
Messages surfacing on the social media application Telegram on Monday both claimed and denied that the Iranian terror proxy Kata’ib Hezbollah would resume attacks on American troops in its home country of Iraq, leaving unclear the intentions of the group.
The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, told Iran’s terrorist proxies in Iraq to pause attacks on American troops, Reuters revealed in a report citing anonymous sources on Sunday.
A mob of angry men convened in Baghdad, Iraq, on Wednesday night at the site of a U.S. drone strike that killed several senior members of the Kata’ib Hezbollah terrorist organization, reportedly shouting “America is the Great Satan” and other jihadist slogans.
A leader in one of the several groups identifying under the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” brand declared on Sunday that any negotiation between Baghdad and Washington on the presence of U.S. troops there will prompt “more pressure on the occupiers.”
Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH, or the Hezbollah Brigades), an Iranian proxy terrorist organization in Iraq, promised “painful” terrorist onslaughts against American forces in the country on Wednesday in an attempt to support the Gaza-based jihadist terror group Hamas.
President Nechirvan Barzani, who presides over the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, warned in conversation with a German legislative delegation that the Islamic State remains a “serious threat” to the country, the KRG revealed in a press release on Wednesday.
Shiite militias in Basra, Iraq, opened fire on each other early Thursday morning in what the Kurdish news outlet Rudaw described as “heavy confrontations,” just days after Shiite followers of anti-Iranian cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the capital, Baghdad, prompting riots that left at least 30 people dead.
“Students” belonging to a paramilitary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, published a letter this weekend lamenting that Iran had not issued a “proportionate” response to the elimination of top terrorist Qasem Soleimani two years ago.
A spokesman for a member militia of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a formal wing of the Iraqi military, warned on Sunday the U.S. would face “appropriate consequences” if it did not fully withdraw from the country in the near future.
Multiple rockets targeted a U.S. base near an oil field in Syria on Monday evening, a day after U.S. airstrikes hit facilities used by Iran-backed Shiite militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region.
The government of Iraq condemned President Joe Biden on Monday for bombing sites within the country, and within Syria, to allegedly combat the threat of Iran-backed militias in the area.
A senior member of the Iran-backed militia coalition Iraq integrated into its armed forces claimed the group can attack U.S. combat troops and military installations with Iran-made drones, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported on Monday.
Iraqi security forces on Wednesday arrested Qassem Mahmoud Karim Musleh, a prominent leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), in connection to the deaths of multiple activists, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported.
Kurdish members of the Iraqi Parliament (MP) and another MP got into a physical brawl Monday night over the latter’s reported insults to the Kurdistan Regional Government and its leaders, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported.
PressTV, an Iranian government propaganda outlet, suggested President Joe Biden’s decision to bomb targets tied to Iran-backed militias in Syria on Thursday may be linked to “numerous reports” of American support for the Islamic State.
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper mocked President Joe Biden on Friday, quoting his declaration, “America is back,” in a headline about his decision to bomb Syria on Thursday evening.
A militia believed to be tied to the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) took responsibility on Tuesday for a rocket attack on Erbil, Iraq, that resulted in damage to the Chinese consulate there.
Militias in the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) organized a “million person march” in Baghdad on Sunday to honor Major General Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s top terrorist mastermind, killed by an American airstrike a year ago that day.
Gang members and militia fighters associated with a coalition linked to Iran have escalated attacks on liquor stories — most owned by Christians and Yazidis — in Baghdad, Iraq, the Kurdish outlet Rudaw reported Sunday.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and two Iraqi officials, an airstrike conducted by unidentified warplanes struck positions in Syria near the border with Iraq on Friday, killing eight members of an Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militia called the Imam Ali Brigades.
The U.S. drone strike that killed the world’s most dangerous terrorist mastermind, Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani, also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a prominent Iraqi militant aligned with Iran.
Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) — a faction of the Baghdad-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that answered to the late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani killed by American forces in Iraq on Thursday — reportedly claimed to be behind 6,000 attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces between 2006 and 2011.
Tensions in Iraq this week forced U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to delay a scheduled trip on Friday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose July 25 phone call with his American counterpart Donald Trump triggered the ongoing impeachment.
WASHINGTON, DC — Some factions of a Baghdad-sanctioned organization of mainly Iranian-backed Shiite militias are engaging in egregious violations such as torture, extrajudicial detentions, rape, extortion, and kidnappings in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province, where persecuted religious minorities like Christians are struggling to recover from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) atrocities, top U.S. officials said this week.
Iran’s defense chief on Thursday reportedly urged for boosting military and defense ties with Iraq, home to anti-U.S. Shiite militias loyal to Tehran and about 5,000 American service members.
The abuse of illicit narcotics in Iraqi Kurdistan is “rising year by year,” an official from the region’s security apparatus reportedly declared this week after the local government published figures on substantial seizures of heroin and the arrest of hundreds of drug offenders in recent months.
Three missiles struck a military base housing local and American troops north of Baghdad late on Monday, the Iraqi armed forces confirmed, without elaborating further.
Reuters on Wednesday quoted two Iraqi security sources who revealed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued warnings about Iran-backed Shiite militia threatening U.S. bases in Iraq with missiles when he paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on May 7.
A top Iranian president aide called U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton “the mustache” this week, declaring he is pushing American President Donald Trump into “war” with Iran.
Members of a Baghdad-sanctioned umbrella organization of Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq are blocking Christian victims of the Islamic State (ISIS) from returning home and otherwise persecuting them, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) reported Thursday, echoing U.S. government warnings.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is actively pressuring the Iraqi government to stop embracing Baghdad-sanctioned Shiite militia fighters and politicians backed by Iran who are hell-bent on using their unprecedented political to undermine American interests in the region on behalf of Tehran.
The estimated 150,000 fighters of the coalition of mostly Shiite militias backed by Iran — the Popular Mobilizations Forces (PMF) — intend to use their reportedly unprecedented military power in neighboring Iraq to drive the United States out of Iraq.
A Baghdad-sanctioned umbrella organization of an estimated 50 mainly Shiite militias, including some backed by Iran, engaged in illicit activities in recent months that undermine security and stability in Iraq, the office of the inspector general (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) stressed this week.
Baghdad repudiated recent Iraqi media reports claiming U.S. warplanes launched lethal airstrikes in Anbar province against an Iraqi-sanctioned umbrella organization for mainly Shiite militias backed by Iran, Bas News reported Monday.
