After years of bloody rivalry and claimed unfairness by all sides, the paradoxical Iraqi government made up of elements from at least three rivaling factions has been hard at work balancing the scales among Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite communities of the country. Iraq today is a nation of considerable unrest. Protests and near riots have resulted in thousands of injuries and many deaths.
The Iraqi Parliamentary Human Rights Committee reported in November 2019 that at least 319 people had been killed during last fall’s protests. According to the Independent High Commission for Human Rights of Iraq, an additional 15,000 were injured over a short period of time.
Meanwhile, since 2014, Iran has assisted Iraq in helping the disproportionately larger but underprivileged Shiite communities of Iraq with funding and by contributing armaments to the People’s Protection Units known in Iraq as the al-?ashd ash-Sha?bi, an umbrella group of militias officially part of Iraq’s national Armed Forces. The aim of this support is claimed to be providing security and to help employment and prosperity in the South of Iraq.
The Iranian assistance to its sibling Persian communities of Iraq has annoyed America which had historically caused great problems for the Shiite communities in Iraqi-Persia. This is not widely reported in America. This article will explain some of that history, relying on Iraqi sources.
by Behar Abbasi
America is expanding its presence in Iraq to further surround Iran, preparing for War.
Violence in Iraq by American Forces against Iraqi Shia militia bases in the past 72 hours has raised serious questions about the American presence in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi is according to reports furious because he asks the Americans not to do these attacks. The American response was to say, “We are not asking permission, we are telling you this is going to happen, [translation]” said Abdul-Mahdi in a televised statement on local Iraqi TV.
The Iraqi Prime Minister has admonished the American attacks as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
Donald Trump’s administration which has been eager for war with Iran, although Trump says he does not want war, will send nearly 4000 additional troops to Iraq despite the protests of the Iraqi government.
FPM.news sources in Baghdad and in Tehran claim that the Pentagon and its military industrial complex plus Great Britain are building a greater war-fighting presence in Iraq in order to go to war against Iran, a war they will fight from Iraq, killing Iraqi and Iranian civilians with little or no risk to Americans or British but turning the Middle East into a holocaust.
A Rocket Attack that may be incorrectly attributed to Shia Muslims
A controversial rocket attack last week against a US base near Kirkuk, Iraq was according to the American side, done by Shia Militia of the Iraqi military but other sources say the attack comes from within the US Military relationships amidst purchasing and supply entanglements.
“Some disagreements they [the Americans] are having with contractors and locals in Kirkuk may have caused the attack. There is no lack of such rockets in Kirkuk,” says a long established source in the city reports Saif Abdul-Ahad, FPM.news correspondent.
“The people of Kirkuk are not happy with the US presence near their city and may have been responsible,” according to an informed source.
“Kirkuk residents have been opposed to the American/Peshmerga alliance against the city’s interests,” says Saif Abdul-Ahad, FPM.news correspondent.
“The United States continues to occupy twelve significant military facilities in Iraq. Some five military bases are being used to illegally train former ISIS and Peshmerga fighters to act in Yemen, Somalia and other countries of US interest,” he added.
An American attack on 30 December at al Qaim and at other Iraqi bases in Iraq. Photograph is source supplied. Photo Art/Cropping: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
Iranian-backed Shia militia forces have since 2016 been embedded officially with the Iraqi military. A unit of such a now-indoctrinated Iraqi Army unit that that fought against ISIS and removed it from al Qaim near the Syrian border were attacked at the beginning of this week by the USA. Dozens were killed.
Who are the al-?ashd ash-Sha?bi Shia Component of the Iraqi Military—The Short Version
There are a total of 40 such Iranian-supported Shia units in an arm of the Iraqi military that separates Shia Muslims from Shiite Muslims and acknowledges their distinct cultures and issues.
They are called the al-?ashd ash-Sha?bi, which accommodate the fact that a substantial part of the Iraqi population is Shia Muslim. Iraq’s Muslims follow two distinct traditions, Shia and Sunni Islam. According to the 2018 CIA Factbook, “Iraq is 95-98% Muslim of which 64–68% are Shia and 30-34% are Sunni”.
“It is only since March 2014 when Nouri al-Maliki founded the al-?ashd ash-Sha?bi that military units have fully accommodated Shia culture of dress and prayer habits,” notes Saif Abdul-Ahad.
“Until then the Iraqi military in the tradition of Saddam Hussein was predominantly Sunni Muslim,” he adds.
Reportedly Iran has financially and morally supported the Shia-oriented Popular Mobilization Units (al-?ashd ash-Sha?bi) as part of its 1990s pledge to assist the citizens of Iraqi Persia (Southern Iraq) which comprises most of the nation’s population.
Much of Iraqi Persia took a beating after 1990, according to historians, at the hands of Saddam Hussein who rivalled the Shia population he presided over as President of Iraq from July 1979 to April of 2003 when he was ousted by the American invasion of Iraq.
In 1990, US President George H. Bush pushed the Iraqi Army of Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and created a no-fly zone over the Southern Iraqi regions with little success in protecting Shia Muslims of Iraqi Persia.
This is seldom discussed in America as a consequence of US-meddling in the Middle East which has left many millions either dead or displaced from their homes, and destroyed what was once a prosperous nation.
Photo Credit: US Army/Staff Sgt. Desmond Cassell/Task Force-Iraq . Photo Art/Cropping: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
US Embassy in Baghdad comes under siege on New Years Eve and New Year’s day in response to US bombing of Iraqi militia in Iraq. Shia Militia sources say they have called for a cessation of protest and general calm since, as they say, “the point has already been made”.
“The Americans have responded by sending an immediate 750 special forces to defend the Embassy and another three thousand troops to join the 5000 already in the country,” says Saif Abdul-Ahad, FPM.news correspondent.
“American troop levels in Iraq are unreliably stated by the US Pentagon based on Saif Abdul-Ahad’s, observations and sources on the ground in Iraq.
Photo Credit: Saif Abdul-Ahad; Photo Art/Cropping: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
The photos and their story: The onset of demonstrations outside the American embassy in Baghdad by Saif Abdul-Ahad, FPM.news correspondent.
“The yellow flags are al-?ashd ash-Sha?bi members and supporters,” FPM.news‘s correspondent in Baghdad said.
“There was a mixture of Iraqi regulars defending the US Embassy,” he added, “and a mixture of young Iraqi males who joined al-?ashd ash-Sha?bi members and supporters plus others who carrying remnants of signs of protest from the anti-government protests ongoing in the city and across Iraq.”
“It was calmer at the embassy than it has been at the main Iraqi government buildings during recent protests and riots.”
Photo Credit: Saif Abdul-Ahad; Photo Art/Cropping: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
Crowds were dispersing at the time of publication.