In a short video released by the newly formed “League of the Revolutionaries,” which is likely a front for another Iranian-backed group in Iraq, a masked fighter warned of future attacks on U.S. troops inside the country.
The statement began with a boast that the rockets the group used to attack Camp Taji were the “smallest amount of force the group could use” against U.S. targets in Iraq. The League of Revolutionaries claimed the attack on Camp Taji, which houses U.S. and coalition troops, earlier this month.
The speaker then claimed that the group possesses “long range weapons that could perish you in the land of your spoiled child, Israel.”
The bold statement suggested the front could strike American-operated bases in Iraq with stronger weapons and has the ability to strike Israel.
The spokesman went on to warn President Trump and the friends of two American soldiers killed at Camp Taji by mimicking Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s Jan. 5 speech, which has been lauded by several Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East.
Specifically, the speaker threatened U.S. soldiers that they will “leave vertically before we force them to leave horizontally.”
That language copied the imagery of Nasrallah’s “T” hand gesture, which was used in the Jan 5 speech. It signifies U.S. soldiers arriving in the region alive (vertically) and leaving deceased (horizontally).
Nasrallah’s speech and subsequent hand gesture came in the wake of the assassination of Iranian Qods Force general Qassem Soleimani. Nasrallah explicitly called for attacks against the US in retaliation during his tirade.
As previously detailed by FDD’s Long War Journal, the “League of the Revolutionaries” is likely a front group for other, more established Iranian proxies in Iraq. The use of a one-off front is a tried-and true-method that allows for plausible deniability.
Moreover, the League of Revolutionaries’ logo, which mirrors that of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxies across the Middle East, calls attention to its position within Iran’s ‘axis of resistance.’
The IRGC and its network have a long history of utilizing front names to claim more sensitive attacks – especially in Iraq. This includes the kidnapping of an American soldier in 2006 and the kidnapping of five Britons in 2007.
