Muqtada al Sadr reactivates Mahdi Army, Promised Day Brigade
Muqtada al Sadr has reactivated two of his longstanding militia forces in Iraq in response to the U.S. killing Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
Muqtada al Sadr has reactivated two of his longstanding militia forces in Iraq in response to the U.S. killing Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
The parade detailed a large presence inside Samarra for Muqtada al Sadr’s Peace Brigades.
The radical Shia cleric responded to the US military deployment of an additional 560 troops to aid in the fight against the Islamic State by threatening to attack them.
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.
“If America persists” in advocating for a Sunni and Kurdish state outside of Iraq, “then it will cease to exist,” the Iranian-backed cleric threatened.
The Islamic State makes a push in Anbar’s capital and takes control of a district as Iraqi forces and Shiite militias are reportedly preparing an offensive in the western province.