Iranian-supported militias such as Hezbollah Brigades, Asaib al Haq, Harakat al Nujaba, Kata’ib Imam Ali, and Kata’ib Sayyid al Shuhada are taking part in the effort to wrest Fallujah from the Islamic State.
The Hezbollah Brigades will likely join other Iranian-backed groups in the fighting for Fallujah when the operation to recapture the city officially begins.
Harakat al Nujaba’s leader said that the Shia militia is operating in the Fallujah corridor and has prepared its forces to participate with the Anbar Brigade to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State.
Rutbah has been a key center of activity for the Islamic State in Anbar. It is the latest population center in the western province to be liberated by the Iraqi military.
Muqtada al Sadr, the radical Shia cleric who battled US forces during the Iraqi occupation, is preparing his militia to participate in an offensive to retake the northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State. The US military has insisted that Iranian-backed militias will not fight in Mosul.
Abu Wahib has been waging jihad in Iraq for more than a decade. He fought for al Qaeda in Iraq, was imprisoned and escaped during an al Qaeda assault on a prison in 2014, and is responsible for the Islamic State’s successes in Anbar province.
Dozens have perished in a series of Islamic State operations carried out across Iraq and Syria. The jihadists are using the bombings and raids to honor Abu Ali al Anbari, a top leader killed by US counterterrorism forces earlier this year.
The Islamic State has suffered significant setbacks in Anbar over the past six months and in some areas has pulled back to conduct guerrilla attacks against Iraqi security forces, tribal fighters, and the Shiite militias that have filled the security vacuum.
The deployment would mark the first time that Army forces, including commandos and snipers of the Rapid Response Battalions, have operated outside Iranian borders since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.
“We want to be a third power in Iraq,” the commander of Saraya Khorasani said. “Why can’t the Hashd [Popular Mobilization Force] be like the Revolutionary Guard in Iran?”
Harakat al Nujaba has a long history with Hezbollah and Iran, in both Iraq and Syria. “The blood of Hezbollah which flowed in the land of Iraq is our responsibility for so long as we exist,” the group’s spokesman said.
Omar al Shishani’s status has been uncertain since the US announced it targeted him last week, and it is still unknown if he is dead, alive, or seriously wounded.
Iranian-backed Shia militias in Iraq continue to showcase both the ownership and usage of US-made vehicles and equipment.
The photo offers more evidence of another Iranian-backed militia in Iraq owning and using a US-made M1 Abrams tank.
The Islamic State has released a new video (titled “Kill Them Wherever You Find Them”) featuring the terrorist team responsible for the Nov. 13, 2015 coordinated attacks in Paris. Some of the jihadists address the camera before or after committing grisly executions that were broadcast in previous videos.
The League of the Righteous, which has threatened Americans in Iraq and also carried out several kidnappings, is the prime suspect. The Shiite militia has denied any involvement in the abduction of the three Americans.
This month, the Popular Mobilization Force began harassing Christians in Baghdad by suggesting women wear the hijab, or veil, and instructing the minority not to celebrate Christmas.
A US military spokesman said earlier today that five members of the Islamic State’s external operations arm were killed in recent airstrikes. Some of the jihadists are believed to have ties to the terrorist cell that struck Paris on Nov. 13.
The loss of Ramadi is a major blow to the Islamic State, which seized the provincial capital and raised its flag over the government center on May 15 after launching a coordinated assault on Iraqi units stationed in the city.
A US military spokesman touted the strikes that killed the three Islamic State leaders as “an example of how we’re able to decimate networks.”
Harakat al Nujaba leader Akram al Kaabi met with Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Qods Force, in Aleppo, Syria, according to the Iraqi Shiite militia.
The strikes that targeted “Jihadi John” and Abu Nabil should serve as a reminder that 14 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, the military and intelligence establishment remain hyper focused on targeting individuals in the hopes of causing the collapse of jihadist groups.
Akram al Kaabi, the leader of the Iranian-supported Harakat al Nujaba militia that is based in Iraq and an integral part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, has said that he follows Iran’s supreme leader and would participate in a coup if ordered to do so.
A brigadier general and a colonel from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed while fighting jihadists and rebels. Nine other IRGC members, including two lower-level officers, were also killed in Syria over the past three weeks.
Photos released by the jihadist group show its “Third Armored Brigade” using US-made MRAPs to train in northern Iraq.
The Islamic State continues to harass Iraqi troops and Shiite militias around the central city of Samarra. Jihadists recently overran several areas near Samarra and deployed foreign suicide bombers during its assault.
Sayyid al Shuhada said it would “strike and destroy” Saudi interests, not just in Iraq, but inside the kingdom. The militia, which operates as part of the Iraqi government, Iran, and the US-backed Popular Mobilization Committee, is led by Abu Mustafa al Sheibani, a dangerous commander who is listed by the US as a global terrorist.
The Islamic State is training its forces inside Palmyra, a city under its control, while Al Nusrah is instructing fighters near the contested city of Aleppo.
The military’s claim that the US troops who participated in the operation were military advisers and not engaged in a combat mission is implausible, given the involvement of Delta Force operators. One US soldier was killed.
Officials continue to whitewash the role that Iranian-backed Shiite militias play in Iraq’s offensive against the Islamic State. The US continues to provide airstrikes to these militias, which are Iranian clients responsible for killing hundreds of American soldiers and remain hostile to the US.