Iran attack: US troops targeted with ballistic missiles

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Iran attack: US troops targeted with ballistic missiles


The American Ain al-Asad-Airforce base in Iraq

Iran has carried out a ballistic missile attack on air bases housing US forces in Iraq, in retaliation for the US killing of General Qasem Soleimani.

More than a dozen missiles launched from Iran struck two air bases in Irbil and Al Asad, west of Baghdad.

It is unclear if there have been any casualties.

The initial response from Washington has been muted. President Trump tweeted that all was well and said casualties and damage were being assessed.

Two Iraqi bases housing US and coalition troops were targeted, one at Al Asad and one in Irbil, at about 02:00 local time on Wednesday (22:30 GMT on Tuesday). It came just hours after the burial of Soleimani, who controlled Iran's proxy forces across the Middle East.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said the attack was "a slap in the face" for the US and called for an end to the US presence in the region.

Echoing him, President Hassan Rouhani said the US would have its "feet cut off" in the Middle East.

Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said Iran warned him just after midnight local time that an attack was imminent and only areas with US troops would be targeted. There were no reports of Iraqi casualties, he said.

Just hours after the missile strikes a Ukrainian airliner crashed in Iran shortly after take-off. There is no evidence that the two incidents are linked.

Several airlines have suspended flights to Iran and Iraq amid the rising tension.

Is this the end of the escalation?

This is the most direct assault by Iran on the US since the seizing of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the attack was in retaliation for the death of Soleimani on Friday - killed in a missile strike outside Baghdad airport on the orders of President Trump - and warned US allies that their bases could also be targeted.

Iran's Defence Minister Amir Hatami said Iran's response to any US retaliation would be proportional to the US action.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the attack was self-defence and denied seeking to escalate the situation into war.

The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Baghdad says the tweets appear to suggest that Iran wishes to draw a line under its retaliation for the assassination of Soleimani and is putting the onus on the US as to whether the situation escalates.





Given the significance of General Soleimani and the passions that his killing aroused - Iran's military strike against US bases in Iraq was a modest response.

The attack was clearly timed to cause as few casualties as possible. Both the US and Iran - for all their rhetoric - do not want a wider conflict. So maybe a line can be drawn under this matter for now.

Is this the end of Iran's retaliation? Time will tell.

But it is hard to see Iranian policy changing. It is presumably still going to try to secure its regional goals, not least the departure of US forces from Iraq.

The Soleimani killing has weakened the US position there. But it was rocket attacks from Iran's proxies - local Shia militia - against US bases that formed the prelude to this recent crisis.

Has the US established any measure of deterrence? And if not, will Iranian-inspired attacks resume in due course?

What is the status of US troops in Iraq?

The US has around 5,000 troops in Iraq tasked with preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State group (IS) there.

President Trump said on Tuesday a US withdrawal of troops from Iraq would be the worst thing for the country.

His comments came in the wake of a letter, which the US military said had been sent in error, to Iraq's prime minister, which suggested that the US would be "repositioning" forces in the country.

The UK foreign office told the BBC: "We are urgently working to establish the facts on the ground. Our first priority is the security of British personnel." The UK has put the Royal Navy and military helicopters on standby amid rising tensions in the Middle East, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said earlier.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would strike back hard against any attack and said President Trump should be congratulated for acting "swiftly, boldly and resolutely" in assassinating Soleimani.

While Iraq's prime minister, Abdul Mahdi, urged restraint on all sides and warned that the crisis threatened a "devastating all-out war in Iraq, the region and the world".



How did we get here?

The assassination of Soleimani - head of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force and architect of Iranian policy in the region - on 3 January was a major escalation in already deteriorating relations between Iran and the US.

The general was regarded as a terrorist by the US government, which says he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops and was plotting "imminent" attacks.

Iran vowed "severe revenge" for his death.



Mr Trump, meanwhile, warned the US would respond in the event of retaliation "perhaps in a disproportionate manner".

"He was a monster. And he's no longer a monster. He's dead," Mr Trump said, defending his decision. "He was planning a big attack, a bad attack for us. I don't think anyone can complain about it."

Millions of Iranians turned out for the commander's funeral, with mourners chanting "death to America" and "death to Trump".


Iran says the attack was in retaliation for killing the country's top commander Qasem Soleimani

A stampede at the burial in Soleimani's hometown Kerman killed 50 people and injured 200 more on Tuesday.

After the event resumed, top Iranian officials renewed their threats of revenge.

"The martyr Qasem Soleimani is more powerful... now that he is dead," the Revolutionary Guards' commander-in-chief, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, told the crowds.


Hossein Salami (Persian: حسین سلامی‎, born 1960) is an Iranian military officer with the rank of Major general, who currently serves as the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

How does Iraq fit into this?

Iran supports a variety of Shia militia groups in neighbouring Iraq. On Friday, Soleimani had just arrived at Baghdad airport and was travelling in a convoy alongside officials from such groups when their cars were hit by several US missiles.

Iraq now finds itself in a difficult position as an ally both of Iran and of the US. Thousands of US troops remain in the country to assist in the broader struggle against the Sunni Islamic State (IS) group but Iraq's government insists the US has acted beyond the terms of this agreement.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi labelled the missile strike that killed Soleimani as a "brazen violation of Iraq's sovereignty and a blatant attack on the nation's dignity".

Sources: BBC, NOS, Reuters, CBS and Wikipedia

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With foreign troops moving out of Iraq this can have risky consequences. Not only the power of Iran and Pro-Iranian militia in Iraq like Kataeb Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AHH), and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) face a threat to Iraq’s stability, Independence, Sovereignty and vulnerable minorities like the Christians, Yezidi and Sunni's. In a new power vacuum the Islamic state (Daesh/ISIL/ISIS) could regroup, reorganise itself and grow again and conquer territory. Also other extremist Sunni Muslim groups like Al Qaida affiliated militia and movements and other Salafist and Wahhabi groups supported by Saoudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab emirates or the Egyptian Brotherhood or Jordanian Islamist Jihadist extremist Sunni Muslim parties, groups and fighters could regroup themselves or enter Iraq from Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, or via Airports, via the Bubiyan Island or the Persian Gulf. Sunni Muslim extremists from Northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia and Libiya), Chechenia, Albania, Western Europe, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and other Sunni Muslim area's in the world always find ways to go to Jihadist battle grounds in the world. The fact that Iraq is surrounded by stable mainly Sunni Muslim Arab countries and the fact that Iraq is unstable itself makes the country vulnerable for infiltration by Sunni Muslim extremists, Shia Muslim extremists, certain foreign regional powers, intelligence organisations, foreign military, organised crime, arms dealers and arms smugglers and extremist, terrorist, Islamist Fundamentalist violent Jihadi ideologies. So the danger does not only comes from Iran, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Houthi's, the Afghan Hazara Shia Militia and other Shia groups and militia's in the regions, but also from groups like Islamic State (Daesh, ISIL or ISIS), Al Qaida, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly know as the Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra), the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Palestinian terror groups.

The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an Iraqi militia group, which is composed of dozens of armed cells, were estimated to total around 122,000 fighters, according to Iraqi officials in 2018. The PMF was officially recognized by the Iraqi government in 2016, despite concerns from Sunni leaders who warned that it “looks like Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.”

Shia militia's in Iraq:

- Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH; Arabic: عصائب أهل الحق‎ Aṣaʾib ʾAhl al-Haqq, "League of the Righteous"), also known as the Khazali Network, is an Iraqi Shi'a paramilitary group active in the Iraqi insurgency and Syrian Civil War. During the Iraq War it was known as Iraq's largest "Special Group" (the Americans' term for Iran-backed Shia paramilitaries in Iraq), and is now part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a group of Shi’ite militias that are close to Iran. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa%27ib_Ahl_al-Haq )

- The Sayyid of Martyrs Battalions, or Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) (Arabic: كتائب سيد الشهداء‎, The Battalion of the Sayyid's Martyrs) is an Iraqi Shia militia formed in 2013. Its stated mission is to protect "(Shia) shrines across the globe", preserve "Iraqi unity" and to "put an end to the sectarian conflict". ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata%27ib_Sayyid_al-Shuhada )

- Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba (Nujaba or HHN; Arabic: حركة حزب الله النجباء‎ Ḥaraka Ḥizballāh an-Nujabā’, "Movement of the Party of God's Nobles") is an Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary group that is especially active in Syria. The group is considered an Iranian proxy. It openly receives training, arms, and military advice from Iran. It is part of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a group of Shi’ite militias that are close to Iran. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harakat_Hezbollah_al-Nujaba )


The flag of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba

- Kata'ib Hezbollah (Arabic: كتائب حزب الله‎, lit. 'Brigades of the Party of God') or Hezbollah Brigades is an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group which is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces that is supported by Iran. It has been active in the Iraqi Civil War and the Syrian Civil War. During the Iraq War, the group fought against coalition occupation forces. The group was commanded by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis until he was killed by a US airstrike in Baghdad on 3 January 2020.


Jamal Ja'far Muhammad Ali Al Ibrahim (Arabic: جمال جعفر محمد علي آل إبراهيم‎ Jamāl Jaʿfar Muḥammad ʿAlīy ʾĀl ʾIbrāhīm, 1 July 1954 – 3 January 2020), known by the kunya Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (Arabic: أبو مهدي المهندس‎, lit. 'Abu Mahdi, the Engineer'), also spelled Mohandes, was an Iraqi politician and military commander. At the time of his death, he was deputy chief of the Popular Mobilisation Committee (Al-Hashd Al-Sha'abi). The organisations he oversaw have been reported to have close links to the Quds Force, part of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Kataib Hezbollah is officially listed as a terrorist organisation by the governments of Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.


The logo of Kata'ib Hezbollah


The flag of Kata'ib Hezbollah

- The Peace Companies (Arabic: سرايا السلام‎, Sarāyā as-Salām), frequently mistranslated as Peace Brigades in US media, are an Iraqi armed group linked to Iraq's Shia community. They are a 2014 revival of the Mahdi Army (جيش المهدي Jaysh al-Mahdī) that was created by the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in June 2003 and disbanded in 2008.

The Mahdi Army rose to international prominence on April 18, 2004, when it spearheaded the first major armed confrontation against the US forces in Iraq from the Shia community. This concerned an uprising that followed the ban of al-Sadr's newspaper and his subsequent attempted arrest, lasting until a truce on June 6. The truce was followed by moves to disband the group and transform al-Sadr's movement into a political party to take part in the 2005 elections; Muqtada al-Sadr ordered fighters of the Mahdi army to cease fire unless attacked first. The truce broke down in August 2004 after provocative actions by the Mahdi Army, with new hostilities erupting. The group was disbanded in 2008, following a crackdown by Iraqi security forces.


Muqtada al-Sadr (Arabic: مقتدى الصدر‎, romanized: Muqtadā ṣ-Ṣadr; born 4 August 1974) is an Iraqi Shia cleric, politician and militia leader. He is the leader of the Sadrist Movement and the leader of Saraya al-Salam, a Shia militia that is a reformation of the previous militia he led during the American occupation of Iraq, the Mahdi Army. There were reports on 7 December 2019 of an armed drone attack on Sadr. Muqtada al-Sadr is one of the most influential religious and popular figures in Iraq, despite not holding any official title in the Iraqi government.

At its height, the Mahdi Army's popularity was strong enough to influence local government, the police, and cooperation with Sunni Iraqis and their supporters. The group was popular among Iraqi police forces. The National Independent Cadres and Elites party that ran in the 2005 Iraqi election was closely linked with the army. The Mahdi Army were accused of operating death squads.

The group was armed with various light weapons, including improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Many of the IEDs used during attacks on Iraqi Security Forces and Coalition Forces used infra-red sensors as triggers, a technique that was used widely by the IRA in Northern Ireland in the early-to-mid-1990s.

The group was re-mobilized in 2014 in order to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and was still active as of 2016. It participated in the recapture of Jurf Al Nasr and the Second Battle of Tikrit.


The logo and flag of the Sarāyā as-Salām

- The Badr Organization (Arabic: منظمة بدر‎ Munaẓẓama Badr), previously known as the Badr Brigades or Badr Corps, is an Iraqi political party headed by Hadi Al-Amiri. The Badr Brigade was the Iran-officered military wing of the Iran-based Shia Islamic party, Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), formed in 1982. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq most of Badr's fighters have entered the new Iraqi army and police force. Politically, Badr Brigade and SCIRI were considered to be one party since 2003, but have now unofficially separated with ihe Badr Organization now an official Iraqi political party. Badr Brigade forces, and their Iranian commanders, have come to prominence in 2014 fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq. It is a part of the Popular Mobilization Forces.


Badr Organisation Political Logo

- The Conquering Lion of God Forces of Iraq and the Levant (Arabic: Quwwat Assad Allah al-Ghalib fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham), more commonly known by its original name Liwa Assad Allah al-Ghalib fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham or simply LAAG,[c] is a Shia Muslim militant group operating throughout Syria and Iraq. It is named after the title of Imam Ali.


Emblem of Liwa Assad Allah al-Ghalib

- The Promised Day Brigade (abbreviated PDB; Arabic: لواء اليوم الموعود Liwāʾ al-Yawm al-Mawʿūd), originally called the Muqawimun (Arabic: المقاومون al-Muqāwimūn; "Resisters") was a Shi'a organization and was an insurgent group operating in Iraq during the war. In 2010, it was one of the largest and most powerful of what the US military call "Special Groups" in Iraq. The group was created as successor to Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which was Iraq's largest Shi'a militia until its disbanding in 2008, he also called on other Special Groups to join the brigade. Sadr had earlier already talked about the creation of a smaller guerrilla unit which would continue the Mahdi Army's armed activities but for the first time gave the organisation a name in November 2008 when he declared the creation of the Promised Day Brigade. Its activities have particularly increased since May 2009. The group's name is in reference to an alternate term for the Islamic Day of Judgment. A crackdown against the group, in the end 2009, led to the arrest of 18 of its members including several commanders. On November 29, 2009, the group's Basra leader was arrested in al-Amarah.

In October 2009, the Promised Day Brigade fought a battle with rival Special Group Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq for influence in Sadr City. The Promised Day Brigade reportedly won the battle and even managed to destroy the house of Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, a senior Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq leader. Since then, the PDB has been the most powerful Special Group in the ex-Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City and has increased its activity there.

On July 21, 2010, General Ray Odierno said Iran supports three Shiite groups in Iraq that had attempted to attack US bases: US officials believe that of these three groups, the Promised Day Brigades poses the greatest threat to Iraq's long-term security.

- the Promised Day Brigades
- Ketaib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades)
- Asaib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous)

- The Brigade of Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas (Arabic:لواء أبو الفضل العباس, Liwa Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas), also known as the al-Abbas Brigade (Arabic:كتائب العباس, Kata'ib al-Abbas), is a pro-government Twelver Shia Muslim militant group operating throughout Syria. It is named after the nickname of Al-Abbas ibn Ali, son of Imam Ali.

The group was formed in late 2012 to defend the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque and other Shia holy sites in Syria. It rose in prominence in reaction to the desecration of various shrines, heritage sites, and places of worship by rebels during the Syrian civil war and subsequently collaborated with the Syrian Army. Its fighters include native Shia Damascenes, Damascus-based Iraqi Shia refugees, Iraqi Shia volunteers, and other foreign Shia volunteers. Iraqis form its primary constituent. It fights primarily around Damascus, but has fought in Aleppo as well.

In May and June 2013, Reuters reported a split had developed within the brigade over finances and leadership which erupted into a gunbattle. Many non-Syrian members subsequently formed a different brigade.

On 19 May 2014, fighters from the Nour al-Din al-Zanki Brigade claimed to have taken over the al-Abbas Brigade's regional headquarters in Aleppo.

As ISIS made significant gains in Iraq in mid 2014, its Iraqi members were forced to return home to defend the faltering Shi'ite led government in Baghdad.

The al-Abbas Bridge reportedly took part in the 2018 Southern Syria offensive in support of government troops.

The militia has the backing of Iran.


Logo of the al-Abbas Brigade


Ceremonial flag used by the Brigade of Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas

- Saraya al-Jihad (Arabic: سرايا الجهاد‎, "Jihad Companies") or as the Popular Mobilization Forces' 17th Brigade is an Iraqi Shia group and the armed wing of the Jihad and Development Movement, operating in Iraq and Syria under the command of the Popular Mobilization Forces. It has been closely intertwined with Liwa al-Muntazar.


Iranians tear a US flag during a protest in Tehran.

- The Mukhtar Army is a Shi'a Iraqi militia group formed in February 2013 by Wathiq al-Battat, a former senior official in the Hezbollah Brigades. Al-Battat pledged his loyalty to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Al-Battat was arrested briefly on 2 January 2014 but was released despite still being a fugitive. He was apparently "accidentally assassinated" at point-blank range on 20 December 2014 at a fake police checkpoint in eastern Iraq by an unknown party.


The flag of the Mukhtar Army. The flag is identifical to the flag of Hezbollah, except for the text under the emblem, with the Muktar Army flag featuring the line "النهضة الاسلامية في العراق" (The Islamic Renaissance in Iraq).

Sources: First part Pieters own ideas about Iraq and second party about the Shia militia via Wikipedia and Google image search.

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Isis in Iraq: Militants 'getting stronger again'

By Orla Guerin
BBC News, Northern Iraq

23 December 2019


IS was uprooted after a long fight in Iraq, but it was never completely defeated

There are growing indications that the Islamic State (IS) group is re-organising in Iraq, two years after losing the last of its territory in the country.

Kurdish and Western intelligence officials have told the BBC that the IS presence in Iraq is a sophisticated insurgency, and IS attacks are increasing.

The militants are now more skilled and more dangerous than al-Qaeda, according to Lahur Talabany, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official.

"They have better techniques, better tactics and a lot more money at their disposal," he said. "They are able to buy vehicles, weapons, food supplies and equipment. Technologically they're more savvy. It's more difficult to flush them out. So, they are like al-Qaeda on steroids."

The veteran intelligence chief delivered his stark assessment in a London accent - the legacy of years in the UK after his family had to flee from the regime of Saddam Hussein.


The militants are now more skilled and more dangerous than al-Qaeda, according to Lahur Talabany, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official

At his base in Sulaimaniya, nestled in the hills of the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq, he painted a picture of an organisation that has spent the past 12 months rebuilding from the ruins of the caliphate.

"We see the activities are increasing now, and we think the rebuilding phase is over," said Mr Talabany, who heads the Zanyari Agency, one of two intelligence agencies in Iraqi Kurdistan.

A different kind of IS has emerged, he says, which no longer wants to control any territory to avoid being a target. Instead - like their predecessors in al-Qaeda before them - the extremists have gone underground, in Iraq's Hamrin Mountains.

"This is the hub for ISIS [Islamic State group] right now," said Mr Talabany. "It's a long range of mountains, and very difficult for the Iraqi army to control. There are a lot of hide-outs and caves."


Caves (left) where IS fighters have been hiding

He warned that IS would be nourished by the current unrest in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and would exploit the sense of alienation among their fellow Sunni Muslims - a minority community. In Iraq, this is a familiar and bloody pattern.

"If we have political unrest," he said, "this is Heaven or Christmas come early for ISIS."

Growing ranks

The militants are also benefitting from strained relations between Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government, following a Kurdish independence referendum in 2017.

There is now a vast area of no man's land in northern Iraq between Kurdish Peshmerga security forces and Islamic State 'getting stronger again in Iraq' their Iraqi counterparts. According to Mr Talabany, the only ones patrolling in this area are IS.


An Iraqi Kurd Peshmerga soldier looks out across no man's land where IS fighters roam

At a sandbagged outpost on a hilltop overlooking the town of Gwer, Major General Sirwan Barzani has a commanding view of this no man's land, and a worried expression. The Kurdish Peshmerga commander says IS now have free rein across this swathe of uncontrolled territory.

"In the delta between the Great Zab and Tigris rivers we can say they are permanently there," he said. "There is too much activity from IS in the area close to the Tigris. Day by day we can see the movement of ISIS, and the activities."

According to Peshmerga intelligence reports, IS ranks in the area have recently been reinforced by about 100 fighters who crossed the border from Syria, including some foreigners with suicide belts.


"If the situation continues, IS will become more organised in 2020," warns Major General Sirwan Barzani of the Peshmerga (Those who face death), the military forces of the autonomous region of Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

It was from this hilltop at Gwer that the Peshmerga launched their first offensive against IS in August 2014. The major general - and others here - say history is repeating itself.

"I can compare 2019 with 2012, " he said, "when they were beginning, organising themselves, and getting taxes from the people. If the situation continues as it is, in 2020 they will reorganise themselves more, be more powerful and carry out more attacks."

Kurdish intelligence officials estimate that IS is 10,000 strong in Iraq with between 4,000 and 5,000 fighters, and a similar number of sleeper cells and sympathisers.

The international community should be worried, according to Lahur Talabany. "The more comfortable they get here," he says, "there more they will think about operations outside of Iraq and Syria."

Keeping up the pressure

The top US military commander on the ground in Iraq says IS is trying to reconstitute itself but faces a different response from Iraqi and Kurdish security forces this time around.

According to Brigadier General William Seely, Commander of Task Force-Iraq, these forces are better prepared than in 2014 when IS gained control of a third of Iraq and took Mosul, its second largest city, virtually unopposed.

"The ISF [Iraqi security forces] and the Peshmerga are not the same forces as when Mosul fell," said Brig Gen Seely. "We have been here adding to their training. The ISF is keeping their foot on the pedal to ensure the momentum against Daesh [IS] remains steady."



He cites a single month, from mid-October to mid-November, in which the ISF carried out 170 "clearance operations" and destroyed almost 1,700 components for improvised explosive devices.

He says IS fighters are now hiding out in caves and in the desert "in conditions that no one can handle for too long", and they can't move in large formations. "The largest I have seen in my six months here is 15, he says, adding that even one ISIS fighter is too many.

For now the extremists are confined to the shadows - emerging at night to carry out hit-and-run attacks. But Iraq has seen terror grow from these beginnings before, and some here fear a new threat is coming, for the region and the West.

Source/Link: www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50850325

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