Reuters talks about a new plan: Iran dispenses with the large armed factions in Iraq!
[ltr]2021.05.21 - 13:53[/ltr]
[ltr]2021.05.21 - 13:53[/ltr]
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People - Baghdad
A press report said, Friday, that Iran has formed new factions in Iraq that include a small number of fighters, in light of suspicions surrounding large factions that may be related to leaks that led to the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani early last year.
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The report, published by Reuters and translated by "People," (May 21, 2021), indicates that "the new groups are responsible for the recent attacks that used drones."
The report relied on officials in Iraq, faction leaders and sources, stressing that "Tehran has reduced meetings and contacts with the large factions and stopped inviting them to Iran."
Following is the text of the report:
Iran has chosen hundreds of trusted fighters from among the cadres of its most powerful militia allies in Iraq, and has formed smaller, elite, and fiercely loyal factions in a shift away from relying on large groups with whom it previously exercised influence.
The new underground groups were trained last year in drone warfare, surveillance and online propaganda, and responding directly to officers in Iran's Quds Force, the arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that controls allied militias abroad.
They are responsible for a series of increasingly sophisticated attacks against the United States and its allies, according to accounts by Iraqi security officials, militia leaders, and Western diplomatic and military sources.
This tactic reflects Iran's response to setbacks - above all the killing of the military mastermind and Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who had closely controlled the Shiite militia in Iraq until last year was killed in a US missile strike by a drone.
His successor, Ismail Qaani, was unaware of domestic politics in Iraq and had never exercised the same influence over the militia as Soleimani.
The large pro-Iranian Iraqi militia group was also forced to retreat after a popular violent response led to massive mass demonstrations against Iranian influence in late 2019. It was divided here after Soleimani's death and Iran considered it more difficult to control.
But the shift to smaller groups also brings tactical advantages. They are less vulnerable to penetration and could be more effective in spreading the latest technology that Iran has developed to strike at its adversaries, such as armed drones.
An Iraqi security official said, "The new factions are directly linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. They are taking their orders from them and not from any Iraqi party."
This account was confirmed by a second Iraqi security official, three leaders of larger, openly active, pro-Iran militia groups, an Iraqi government official, a Western diplomat, and a Western military source.
"It appears that the Iranians have formed new groups of individuals chosen with great care to carry out attacks and maintain strict secrecy," said one of the leaders of the pro-Iranian militias. "We don't know who they are"
Iraqi security officials said that at least 250 fighters traveled to Lebanon over a period of several months in 2020, where advisers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah trained them in piloting drones, rocket fire, planting bombs, and propaganda. For attacks on social media.
An Iraqi security official said, "The new groups are operating in secret and their leaders, who are unknown, report directly to Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers."
Iraqi security officials and Western sources said that the new groups are behind the attacks, including against US-led forces at the Iraqi Ain Al-Asad air base this month, Erbil International Airport in April, and against Saudi Arabia in January, all of which are using aircraft. Drone loaded with explosives.
These attacks did not result in casualties, but they alarmed Western military officials due to their development.
Iranian officials and representatives of the Iraqi government, the pro-Iranian militia, and the US military did not respond to requests for comment on the report. The US State Department said it was unable to comment.
Battle with Washington
Iran is the pre-eminent Shiite Muslim power in the Middle East, and its influence over Iraq, the largest Shiite-majority country in the Arab world, is one of the main ways in which it spreads its influence throughout the region.
It has been racing for influence in Iraq with the United States since US forces ousted Sunni Muslim dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, empowering Shiites in Iraq.
After Islamic State militants overran a third of Iraqi territory in 2014, Washington and Tehran found themselves on the same side, and both helped the Shiite-led government defeat the Sunni Muslim militants over the next three years.
The United States, which withdrew from Iraq in 2011, has returned thousands of troops.
At the same time, Iran has supported large militia groups such as the Hezbollah Brigades, the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, each of which has managed to deploy thousands of armed fighters and grant them semi-official status to help fight the Islamic State.
But after Soleimani's death, and as protesters turned against groups openly linked to Iran, officials in Tehran became suspicious of some of the militias they had promoted and became less supportive, according to the militia leaders.
One of them said, "They (Iran) believe that leaks from one of the groups helped cause Soleimani's death, and they saw divisions over personal interests and power between them."
Another said, "The meetings and contacts between us and the Iranians have decreased. We no longer have regular meetings and they have stopped inviting us to Iran."
Iraqi security officials, a government official and three militia leaders said the Quds Force began separating trusted militants from the main factions within months after Soleimani's death.
The shift from supporting mass movements to relying on smaller, more compact cadres reflects a strategy that Iran has pursued before: At the height of the US occupation of Iraq in 2005-2007, Tehran established cells that proved particularly effective in deploying sophisticated bombs to penetrate American armor.
Diplomacy re-opened
Since President Joe Biden took office, Tehran has reopened diplomatic channels with both Washington and Riyadh. And one of its main sources of influence in those talks is its ability to strike at its opponents.
The drones it and its allies now use to launch attacks are much more difficult to defend and detect than regular missile launches, increasing the threat it poses to the 2,500 remaining US forces in Iraq.
Gen. Kenneth MacKenzie, the head of US Central Command, said in April after the Erbil attack that Iran had made "significant strides" from its investment in drones.
In the past year, previously unknown groups began issuing claims of responsibility in the wake of roadside missile and bomb attacks. Western officials and academic reports have often dismissed these new groups as fronts for Kataib Hezbollah or other familiar militias. However, the Iraqi sources said they are truly separate and operate independently.
"During the era of Qaani (Soleimani's successor), they are trying to form groups of a few hundred men from here and there, intended to be loyal only to the Quds Force, a new generation," the Iraqi government official said.
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