Consternation dominates in Iraq after US retaliatory raids against a pro-Iranian militia. The strikes that targeted five Hezbollah Brigade arms depots on Friday March 13 killed six Iraqis – three soldiers, two police and one civilian – and injured 12 others, according to an interim report by the Iraqi army. General Franck McKenzie, the head of the central command of the American army, hailed the "Success" of the operation in response to the attack the day before, allegedly carried out by the Hezbollah Brigades, against a base sheltering troops of the international coalition, which killed two Americans and a Briton. For the authorities of Baghdad, it constitutes new "American aggression" and an "Violation of Iraqi sovereignty" that they intend to denounce before the United Nations Security Council. Two rockets hit the military base of the international coalition again on Saturday.
Shia parties and militias close to Iran have again demanded the departure of US forces from Iraq. For them, this escalation is an additional argument in the debate launched after the assassination in an American drone strike in Baghdad, on January 3, of the Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani, the head of the Al-Quds force of the Revolutionary Guards. , and his lieutenant in Iraq, Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes. In a rare display of unity, the Shia majority in Parliament voted on January 5 for a non-binding resolution asking the government to kick foreign forces out of Iraq. Some 6,000 troops – including 5,200 Americans – have been redeployed since 2014 to fight the Islamic State (IS) organization.
"Like occupying forces"
Proponents of the hard line are tempted by escalation as the political crisis blocks the progress of this issue. The appointment of a successor to Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, who resigned in November under pressure from the street, remains unresolved. The announced dispatch of Patriot missile batteries to protect the bases where the Americans are stationed is fueling their impatience.
"We must expel all American troops from the Middle East, claims the spokesman for the militia of the Hezbollah Brigades, Mohamed Mohie Eddin. The Americans are not there to help Iraq. "" The Apache helicopters, the F-16s and the Abrams tanks remain under their control, whether for armaments or spare parts. Iraq can secure its territory and borders without them, and we must be able to negotiate weapons and training with other countries ", he continues.
