Iraq in the Shadow of Khomeinism – Part III: Iraq is NOT Iran!

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Iraq is NOT Iran! The Pushback against Ethno-Sectarian Rule

Baghdad risks becoming one great filthy sprawling Sadr City unless the pushback gains momentum in time to save the country.

“For security reasons, the lights on the aircraft will be turned off” announces the Captain when the Boeing 737 cruises near Kirkuk, bound for Baghdad. The dark shadow of the plane, lit only by the half-moon, moves across the flat plain below like a spectre. Off in the near distance, from the Baba Gurgur oil fields the gas fires flare orange towards the sky. “The cabin lights will also be dimmed,” the Captain says.

The Kurdish passengers on the Iraqi Airways flight had all disembarked in Sulaimaniya airport. Only a handful remained for the final stage to Baghdad, including a spirited team of British balloonists intending to fly in their bubble over Babylon. Ministry bureaucracy would delay that dream as long as possible.

The plane descended, still blacked out. The Captain switched the lights back on just as the tarmac rose up towards the windows.

The ruins of statehood

In the past three years since the 2018 elections, Iran’s influence had expanded in every sphere along with that of their militia proxies. The militias had not only become state forces in 2014 but had entered government by 2018. They infiltrated the diplomatic service and Embassies, the banking system, the universities and educational institutions, putting their own people into position, selling degrees, altering grades, and dispensing with state assets for private gain.

The same is equally characteristic of the Kurdish region.

The elite in power across Iraq have their fingers in all the state’s revenues. They steal from the border posts and customs points [1]. They operate fast-deal car sales in militia haunts like in Sadr City. The militia bosses also spend their money on girls that cruise using their mobile phone selfies to pick up clients in the lobbies and gardens of the five-star hotels.

In the small hours of the night scores of men park their cars on the bridges and drank till dawn. If any motorist has an accident instead of rushing to their aid they run out to rob them and may even finish them off…

This has become the style of rule since 2003 and it is getting worse.

Iran-style billboards parading the Shi’a clerics and martyrs stare out across most of Baghdad now, just as in Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, Khomeini and Hezbollah chief, Sayeed Hassan Nasrallah dominate the spaces south of Beirut. The AK47 sends its message across Iraq just as it does in Iran, Lebanon and Syria. The only slogan directly unstated is ‘Death to America.”

Numerous of the new images have gold inscriptions on a black ground urging veneration for Quds forces leader Qassem Soleimani, and PMF commander, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes [2] struck down by drone outside Baghdad airport by the Americans at the beginning of 2020.3 In the Nineveh terminal of the airport, a large vertical TV monitor runs a loop featuring al-Mohandes and six or so prominent fighters also killed by the Americans. These have openly become anti-Western pro-Iran spaces.

The collapse of law, of civil order, traffic chaos, the plummeting living standards, , and general decay is startling; refuse and filth is increasingly ignored and refuse is tossed into the street, the canals and the rivers.

The rivers themselves are also falling to warning levels apparent by the now huge mud banks below the former tide line. This largely owes to Turkish and Iranian dam construction as well as a diversion of a major southern tributary by Iran. However, the Minister of Agriculture blames only climate change: criticism of Iran is very dangerous.

Unregulated building projects are also beginning to destroy the character of the city and its archetypal horizontal skyline. Old Baghdadi houses and once fine palaces are being left to collapse. Little is maintained, except the lavish Oil Ministry. The squalor seems to typify Shi’a areas most of all. Baghdad risks becoming one great extension of the filthy sprawl of Sadr City unless the pushback gains momentum in time to save the country.

Many Iraqis, including Kurds, now openly complain that Iraq was “much better under Saddam!” To be clear, the Ba’ath Party did not target all Kurds or all Shi’as as its opponents sought to claim.

The Kurdish and Shi’a opposition groups fared well in exile before taking power. There they decried the Ba’ath Party for torture, extra judicial killing, unfair trial, and one-party rule. They fully exploited the discoveries of mass graves to their political advantage. They then proceeded to do exactly the same beginning with brutal acts of revenge, torture, kidnap, dismemberment of living captives, assassination, burial of Sunni men and boys in mass graves, sect-based cleansing, revenge killings, extortion, blackmail, death threats, human trafficking, drug running and removing Sunnis from their jobs and homes outdo the pre-2003 administration.

How did it get so far?

Increasing usurpation by Iran’s Iraqi traitors

After regime change in early 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) effectively handed power to the Shi’a and Kurdish opposition with whom the Americans and British had long established ties. The error in so doing was that it brought in opposition figures that had spent years outside the country either in Iran or the West.

America heedlessly led the destruction of the old order: Saddam Hussein had warned them when held in US custody in 2005 that “The Black Turbans should never be allowed to take power…” He knew it would lead to the dismemberment of secular Iraq and an endemic revenge against the Sunnis and secular Shi’a professionals. The unheeded warnings remain on CIA and FBI records – pathetic testimony to wasted opportunities…

Now, torture videos are in circulation of the Shi’a militias in full swing in a manner as barbaric as anything that ISIS produces.

Just as seriously mistaken foreign policy in the 1970s led the West to turn its back on the Shah of Iran and create the space for the extremism of Ayatollah Khomeini to flourish similar errors of judgement then allowed pro-Khomeini Shi’a extremism to usurp the civil order of Iraq.

The exiles that returned to Iraq from Iran had for years been working to destroy the Ba’athist order and terminate the secular administration of the educated elite and replace it with Khomeini style rule. [4] Britain had originally empowered the Sunni elite over the less educated Shi’a in establishing the Kingdom of Iraq from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. That situation endured until the Shi’a extremists, pursuing the creation of an Islamic Republic modelled on Khomeini’s Velayet-e Faqih vision were directly handed power and have since begun to destroy all order in Iraq. Ordinary Iraqis were soon paying a very heavy price.5

Many Shi’a Arabs had also converted to Sunni Islam before and during the Ba’ath “return to faith” campaign that Saddam viewed as a useful antidote to Iranian extremism claiming ever more adherents, largely owing to the agitation of al-Da’wa and SCIRI.

The Wolf Brigade

In 2005, former Da’wa Party spokesman, PM Ibrahim al-Ja’afari, became Prime Minister and the Wolf Brigade operated under his authority. The Shi’a militia worked directly alongside the US army forces in pursuing Sunnis on allegations of their being former Ba’athists. However, Sunnis were targeted in general. A retrospective article in the Guardian titled Iraq war logs: ‘The Us was part of the Wolf Brigade operation against us’ observed: “During the foreboding months of 2005, one police unit struck more fear into Iraqis than the entire occupying US army. They were known as the Wolf Brigade…Brutal even by Iraqi standards, their soldiers and officers seemingly answered to no one. They were seen as indiscriminate and predatory. The unit’s reputation had been known Iraq-wide and results of their numerous raids are still bogged down in Iraq’s legal system.”

The article went on to observe that the “full range of their abuses and close co-operation with the US army remained in the shadows until the WikiLeaks disclosures showcased them in stark detail…Torture and death seemed synonymous with the almost exclusively Shia unit, which was tasked with rooting out Sunni insurgents from post-Saddam Iraq. As security unravelled across the country, they were often seen alongside US forces, particularly in Baghdad and Mosul…” [6]

The article also noted that most of the recruits to the brigade came from Sadr City, host to the al-Mahdi Army (renamed Saraya al-Salam) and its splinter Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) led by extremist, Qais al-Khazali – more on which subject a little later. A former Sadrist militia base has recently been converted into al-Sadr’s al-Atta Hospital just down the road from the heavily-walled Al Rashad Psychiatric Hospital.

The Wolf brigade also directly began targeting Sunni converts from Shi’a Islam. Bayan Baqir Solagh Jabir (AKA Baqir Jabir al-Zubeidi) a Shi’a Turkmen active with SCIRI became Interior Minister in charge of the police when Ibrahim al-Ja’afari was Prime Minister. He had been SCIRI’s representative in Damascus and Beirut in the 1990s from where he worked openly against Saddam Hussein as a Badr commander. “Under Jabr’s control the Interior Ministry in 2006 was accused by the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, of executing and torturing to death hundreds of Iraqis every month. [1]” . Jabir continued to enjoy power in successive posts as Minister of Housing and Reconstruction and later, Minister of Transport taking over this post from Hadi al-Ameri and maintaining it during the ISIS peak between September 2014-August 2016. He had been Minister of Finance under Nouri al-Maliki, and maintained close links with Iran throughout.

Both officials had spent years in exile in Iran opposing the Ba’ath administration. Al-Ja’afari had based himself in both Iran and the UK. Neither official has been held accountable for the abuses committed when they were in power. 7

Badr – at the root of the rot

The Badr Brigade (now Badr Organisation) the armed wing of SCIRI, held squarely in Hadi al-Ameri’s hands, enjoyed years of manipulation over the Iraqi Interior Ministry and the police force and is linked with the death squads operating out of the Ministry. Al-Ameri continues to push his weight around but having ostensibly fared less well in the recent elections seeks to annul them as not being in the interests of his masters in Tehran.

Hadi al-Ameri recently met a KDP delegation seeking their support to overturn the election result– which support was publicly refused with the KDP claiming they would not take sides. [8]

The meeting relied on their pre-existing relationship.

According to a statement issued by his bureau, al-Ameri received “the leading figure of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Hoshyar Zebari, and his accompanying delegation in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The meeting discussed mechanisms to overcome the current crisis and meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.

“Al-Ameri said that the evidence his alliance presented to the Supreme Federal Court are enough to prove that the results are rigged, hinting at a paragraph of the observing company report that shows explicitly the possibility of tampering with the results without leaving a criminal trace.

“For his part, Zebari said that the KDP will not line with a party against another and focuses on “common [points] we shall cooperate for it.”

“You are our allies. We had jihadist, political, and government ties for many years. We also had agreements with other political parties. We work with everyone to address the tensions and problems in the current political situation,” he continued, “we endorse your pivotal, efficient, and important role in thawing out the frost between the political forces.” [9]

Al-Ameri had earlier hosted a PUK delegation back in November. The PUK had also fared less favourably in the ballot tally than rival KDP.

Shafaq news stated: “…al-Ameri hosted a delegation of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) earlier today, Wednesday, in his office in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad…The two sides, according to al-Ameri, expressed their “resolute rejection to the meddling of the election results.”

“During the meeting, al-Ameri said that his party considers “boycotting the political process entirely, if appeals were not addressed seriously and effectively.”

“The leader of Badr Organization accused the Secretary-General of the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMI), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, of “controlling the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), having a bad influence, interfering outside its mission.”…

For its part, the Kurdish delegation highlighted the depth of the relation and partnership between the PUK and the political forces in Baghdad.” [10]

Al-Ameri was personally involved in the deal that led to the ‘transfer’ of Kirkuk from Kurdish to Shi’a control, heavily reinforced by the presence of the Shi’a militias. When Kirkuk fell to Baghdad on 16 October 2017, largely thanks to the strategy pursued by his ally Qassem Soleimani, Iran aimed to maintain control over Kirkuk’s oil fields through the Hashd’s ongoing presence.[11]

The PUK also played a key role in the Kirkuk debacle. The leadership cultivated very strong relations with Iran throughout the Ba’ath era and into the post-2003 period when Jalal Talabani became the first post-Ba’ath figurehead President.

The PUK’s cordial relations with Iran have always come at the price of their relations with the Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups. The PUK-controlled area has very openly been infiltrated by Iranian intelligence agents from Ettela’at and Iranian military personnel. Several senior Iranian agents entered Iraq via the PUK’s border areas including Brigadier General Ahmed Foruzandeh, who was responsible via the Ramazan Corps for attacks against American forces and Iraqis opposed to Iran’s increasing domination via the Quds Force unit. [12]

Brigadier General Hamid Taghavi was another advisor working directly inside Iraq with the militias, including spearheading the Khorasan Brigade. He was killed by ISIS in Samarra. [13]

The unrepentant Nouri al-Maliki

Al-Da’wa party official, Nouri Al-Maliki’s first term in office as Prime Minister was characterised by extreme brutality and sectarian slaughter. He came to power anew in 2014 and stood afresh for election in the recent flawed October elections. Al-Maliki and 35 other officials have been formally accused of losing control of Mosul to ISIS.

An al-Jazeera study from 2015 had reported, “An Iraqi parliamentary committee says that former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials were to blame for allowing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to overrun Mosul last year, and has called for them to face trial …The source said that Maliki’s naming came after the committee heard numerous testimonies of military commanders who said that the former prime minister had ordered the withdrawal of troops from military bases in Mosul.…The inclusion of his name was a source of controversy on the committee, with his Da’wa party pushing for it to be left out…” [14]

Al-Maliki also remains unpunished and unrepentant. [15] To many Iraqis, he is a traitor to Iraq.

Qais al-Khazali – perpetuating the Hezbollah model in Iraq

Asa’aib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) had broken with al-Sadr‘s Jaysh al-Mahdi in 2008 and Qais al-Khazali stamped the new militia with a strongly pro-Iranian identity in the Hezbollah model. It, too, quickly became characterised by political murders and human rights abuses like its sibling. AAH drew up its own death lists of foes and targets that, when expedient, intersect with the government’s main security database. [16]

In January last year, (2020) the US State Department announced its intention to designate AAH as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO). Qais al-Khazali and his brother Laith were both specified as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SGDT) in a statement observing: “AAH, led by Qays and Laith al-Khazali, is an Iran-backed, militant organization that has claimed responsibility for more than 6,000 attacks against U.S. and Coalitions forces since its creation in 2006. AAH has carried out highly sophisticated operations, including mortar attacks on an American base, the downing of a British helicopter, and an attack on the Karbala Provincial Headquarters that resulted in the capture and murder of five American soldiers.”

The SDGT designations of AAH and the al-Khazali brothers then formally took effect. [17] Both remain at large and Qais al-Khazali and AAH retain a very high profile in the public space acting with impunity.

Already responsible for the deaths of several Americans back in 2007, al-Khazali was set free from custody in an exchange for the release of several British hostages in a US-negotiated deal. A pre-condition was that he would remain outside the political arena. He recently thanked Iran and Lebanon for their support.

AAH is accused of being one of the principle actors behind the attempted the assassination of PM al-Kadhimi in November this year. Al-Khazali also contests the election results having been said to have lost seats. [18]

Following the attempted assassination of PM al-Kadhimi on 7 November, the late Qassim Soleimani’s successor, General Esmail Ghani, flew to Baghdad. He claimed Iran was not involved in the attempt that came in the wake of the election fallout. According to AP, the drone attack was similar to the September attack against Erbil Airport. General Ghaani was quoted as saying that Iran is not opposed to any politician from Shi’ite blocs becoming the next prime minister (with reference to al-Sadr’s claimed victory).

The unannounced visit took place … a day after the drone attack outside Al-Kadhimi’s residence wounded seven guards [19] but al-Kadhimi emerged with his life.

Analyst Michael Knights, writing for the Washington Institute, notes how after the US drawdown in 2011, Hashd pro-Iran militia, “AAH tightened its ties to the IRGC-QF’s axis of resistance and sent a contingent to fight in the Syrian civil war under the IRGC-QF’s operational control…” By 2014, AAH was able to enter government with one seat that increased to fifteen in the 2018 elections. Within the umbrella of Hashd al-Sha’abi it then took advantage of state funding and expanded into three brigades, the 41sr, 42nd and 43rd brigades, cementing control north of Baghdad and the belts, including Balad.

On November 19, 2020, Qais al-Khazali appeared on al-Iraqiya TV to announce the end of a truce with U.S. forces (which had previously been announced by Kataib Hezbollah in October 2020)…

Evidence links Sabereen News to AAH. Probable connection to al-Ahad TV. [20]

Time will tell how al-Khazali will meet his final destiny…

Another splinter group from Iran proxy, Kataib Hezbollah (KH), Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhadda has also emerged as one of the most violent of the pro-Iran militias. It is led by Abu Ala al-Walai Mustafa al-Sheibani. [21]

Belkis Wille of Human Rights Watch recently asked the obvious question: “Is there rule of law in Iraq?” The details of her report, speak volumes, as in the citation that follows, concerning the recent trial in Basra of a police commissioner accused of killing journalists. The court heard evidence “that a Basra police commissioner, admitted that he was also a member of an abusive Popular Mobilization Forces unit…formally under the control of the prime minister. … He admitted that he was a member of a so-called “death squad” and was involved in the killing of the two journalists, the sources said. He said he and team members used the local PMF Commission (the PMF’s governing body) office in Basra to plan the killings and hide their cars and weapons after the fact…

“The court witnesses told Human Rights Watch that Al-Aidani told the judge the police had not arrested the head of his squad within the PMF unit but instead allowed him to flee the country. This was the man, he said, who killed the journalists in front of him. He said that the man told the team that the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had issued a fatwa (religious legal ruling) that journalists covering protests with calls against Iran and the PMF, and those inciting the protests, should be killed.

“He said they targeted Samad because he had covered a protest on December 13, 2019, on a street that the PMF had renamed Khamenei Street in 2019 during which protesters burned a large picture of Khamenei that the PMF had hung up on the street. Samad, in his coverage, asked viewers why the street was not instead renamed after an Iraqi leader. The judge ultimately said that he would not include this detail in the record.

“Al-Aidani’s apparent comments, and the fact that he was standing trial alone, raise another question. Where were the other suspects connected with this case? In February, the authorities had said they arrested four people who were behind the killings. But as many questions as his comments raised, they also provided clear and disturbing answers, including just how powerful the PMF are in Iraq, if they can even give a police commissioner orders to carry out extrajudicial killings…[22]

The same applies to the attempt on the Prime Minister’s life to whom these groups are formally responsible within the Hashd framework.

The Pushback – Sunnis, independents and New Generation confront the muhasasa (ethno-sectarian based power-sharing) system

The young adult generation attaining maturity is the first generation born since regime change to grow up in the new disorder that Iraq has become under the muhasasa system. They have known nothing but sect-based carnage, ethnic conflict, instability corruption, nepotism, violence and the rise of both ISIS and Iran in their first eighteen years of life.

At the same period as the Tishreen movement protests were flaring up to reach new heights in October 2019, mass graves containing the remains of Sunni men were found in Anbar governorate. The New Arab had noted at the time, “…The gruesome discovery in Iraq’s western Anbar governorate once again highlights how the Iraqi state either condones or turns a blind eye to atrocities in order to maintain its control allowing sectarian groups who act as proxies to foreign powers to act with impunity…“Protesters have been hurled off from buildings, stabbed, beaten, and shot, with many others subjected to forced disappearances with no record of where they are being held… While militants have also recently targeted Shia Arab protesters, the level of violence perpetrated against the Sunni Arabs is unprecedented in Iraq since the fall of the Baathist dictatorship in 2003…” [23]

Those protestors and independents that did not boycott the elections outright have also been forming fresh formations to challenge the sect-based system that has failed in Iraq just as it has in Lebanon. Yet others remain despairing and simply say they knew the recent elections would not change anything for the better so long as the same old faces had the means to head off all rivals. They were not wrong: various rival groups did not get to see their votes work for them because of the system.

Sunni blocs and independent candidates among them the well-known actor, Akeel al-Zaydi, who stood for election in the New Baghdad (Baghdad al-Jadida) constituency, claim that after the first count the number of their ballots was changed so that those candidates that had effectively won their seats were later deprived of them. They also say they have the evidence and video footage to back it.

The Urubyoon Party (meaning Arabs in an Arab land, as opposed to Persians controlling an Arab Land) is one of the groups. Urubyoon held a large press conference in Baghdad on 26 October 2021 and physically demonstrated how their candidates’ votes were stolen such that they could not take their seats. General secretary, Dr Muthana al-Ghazi, set forth Urubyoon’s position, as follows:

1. The Iraqi government promised the nominees that there will be free and fair elections, far from quotas and divisions.

2. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) have stated more than once that their devices are modern and discreet, and such devices cannot be tampered with.

3. However, the count was tampered with after the end of the period specified for the end of the elections, i.e. the polling ends at six pm in the evening, and there are a large number of stations that were closed after 6 pm, that is, at 7 pm, 8 pm and 9 pm, and this has been proven by us according to video tapes and other evidence.

Accordingly, we demand a recount and sorting of all stations, as well as matching the (voter) fingerprints. “

There are thousands of blocked stations, and therefore we call on the United Nations to remove Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert because she gave reports and statements that she was not authorized to do due to the failure to issue the final results for the candidates and the acquisition (i.e.my take on it, the theft), replacement and manipulation of their votes. (See video). [24]

At the end of November 2021, Moqtada al-Sadr was “confirmed” as the winner with his status only to be ratified unless al-Ameri, al-Khazali or the independents’ challenges should succeed.

France 24 observed: ‘Sadr’s movement won 73 out of the assembly’s 329 seats, the election commission said, after a lengthy manual recount of hundreds of ballot boxes…A distant second with 17 seats was the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance, the political arm of the pro-Iran Hashed al-Sha’abi former paramilitary force, which is now integrated into Iraq’s state security apparatus…” [25]

On December 9, the Azm coalition spearheaded by Sunni politician, Khamis al-Khanjar, announced that the group had joined others to form a new bloc that includes 34 MPs. Azm’s priorities are focused on the “unconditional return of the displaced,” compensating them for damages, and addressing the issue of missing persons. Its statement added that the new bloc includes the Arab Coalition of Kirkuk, the Hasm movement, the Jamaheer party, and members of the Aqd bloc. Yet the disputed election results showed that the total number of winning candidates from all these parties was just 23.

At this same period on December 9, “the leader of Harakat al-Nujaba militia said that “resistance” factions would keep their weapons and continue to operate inside Iraq and abroad despite the ending of the International Coalition’s combat role.” [26]

According to an EPIC ISHM bulletin of 9-16 December, “On December 15, Imtidad, New Generation, and a group of independent election winners formed a new parliamentary alliance called “For the People.” The new alliance of 28 lawmakers said it will act as parliamentary opposition and will not join a government based on ethno-sectarian power-sharing.” [27]

The EPIC ISHM bulletin continued by stating: “Imtidad’s leader Ala’ al-Rikabi described the alliance as the first successful attempt to form a coalition that transcends ethnic and sectarian lines and brings together Arab and Kurdish Iraqis. Rikabi said that he expects more independent election winners to join the alliance “and reach 40 parliamentary seats.” He emphasized that the alliance’s “foundational principle is to form true political opposition in order to cement democracy.” The new alliance issued an “honor code” for its members that highlights three principles: that they would work for the common good instead of personal or partisan interests; that they would not be part of a muhasasa government; and that they would not leave the alliance before the end of the parliamentary cycle.” [28]

On December 14, as detailed above, recall the counter current and how Hadi al-Ameri had met with the KDP hoping to further undermine the election results whilst with the PUK having threatened to boycott the political process altogether.

The petition filed to the Supreme Federal Court in the name of the Fatah Coalition that al-Ameri heads demanded that the results be annulled. The court delayed the hearing until 21st December but on 21 December again delayed it till January 22nd [29]. The KDP had however, also earlier met with the alleged victor, Moqtada al-Sadr on the 12th December and it is noted: “The Sadrist bloc reiterated its earlier position, which calls for forming a majority government. At a meeting with a visiting delegation from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the head of the Sadrist bloc stressed the need to “change the course of the political process away from muhasasa and the division of power and treasure among the parties…”. [30]

The KDP and PUK have both operated according to muhasasa as much as their Baghdad counterparts.

On December 15, Azm and the Taqqadum Coalition of Mohammed al-Halbousi agreed to form a joint negotiating delegation and joint policy decisions “before entering government formation talks with other parties”.

The younger generation: split into pro and anti-Iran camps.

For the Tishreen movement and the many critics of militia rule and government corruption, the danger of expressing an opposition opinion still remains extreme. Hundreds of unemployed youth are prepared to join the Hashd for the sake of sectarian-based power and for a chance to grab arms and salaries. They throng the streets and Tahrir Square at very rally threatening violence, chanting Ya Hussein as a rallying cry and exhorting Shi’a martyrdom for Imam Hussein’s sake. They characterize a large sector of the run-of-the-mill militia conscripts under arms.

The Tishreen movement, conversely, remains unarmed, courageous, and unbroken despite the many lives already claimed in the quest for freedom from sect-based tyranny and control by Tehran.

As they movement’s supporters say, “Iraq is NOT Iran” and, “We will not vote for killers.”

1 The Shi’a militias, including AAH, run the customs operations at borders.
2 Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes became the man behind the PMF and was a former Badr Oranisation commander.
3 See my paper, A New Year, A New Threat to Peace and Stability.
4 See parts I and II of this series of articles, Iraq in the Shadow of Khomeinism.
5 See by this author, Iraq in the Shadow of Khomeinism, Parts I and II.
6 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/28/iraq-war-logs-iraq
7 https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/spare-a-thought-for-the-children-of-the-iraq-war-45147 The notorious Badr Organisation, now a mainstay of both parliament and the Iraqi cabinet, tortured and quite literally butchered Sunni Iraqis for no other reason than their religious affiliations. Another senior commander of the Badr Organisation, Hadi al Ameri, was also transportation minister and his deputies continue to control the interior ministry.
8 https://shafaq.com/en/Iraq-News/Al-Ameri-to-the-KDP-delegation-evidence-presented-to-the-Supreme-Court-can-abolish-the-election.
9 Ibid.
10 https://shafaq.com/en/Iraq-News/Al-Ameri-after-meting-PUK-delegation-we-might-boycott-the-political-process-in-Iraq
11 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-iran-iraq-idUSKCN1IZ0QA
12 https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-general-who-ran-qassem-soleimanis-spies-guns-and-assassins
13 https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2014/12/29/ISIS-claims-killing-of-Iranian-military-adviser-in-Iraq
14 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/8/16/iraq-probe-implicates-maliki-over-mosuls-fall-to-isil
15 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/8/16/iraq-probe-implicates-maliki-over-mosuls-fall-to-isil
16 Its rise to prominence has disturbed many Iraqi political leaders. “Little more than seven years ago, they were just another Iranian proxy used to attack the Americans,” said a minister. “Now they have political legitimacy and their tentacles in all the security apparatus. Some of us didn’t notice until it was too late.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/12/iraq-battle-dead-valley-peace-syria
17 https://2017-2021.state.gov/state-department-terrorist-designations-of-asaib-ahl-al-haq-and-its-leaders-qays-and-laith-al-khazali/index.html
18 https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/profile-asaib-ahl-al-haq-0
19 https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/irans-top-general-visits-iraq-denies-tehrans-involvement-in-attack-on-pm-al-kadhimi.html
20 https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/profile-sabereen-news
21 https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/profile-kataib-sayyid-al-shuhada
22 https://www.hrw.org/node/380611/printable/print
23 https://english.alaraby.co.uk/analysis/iraq-report-mass-graves-sunnis-found
24 Private email after the conference.
25 https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211130-iraqi-cleric-sadr-s-bloc-declared-biggest-election-winner
26 https://enablingpeace.org/ishm332/
27 https://enablingpeace.org/ishm332/
28 https://enablingpeace.org/ishm332/#Headline1
29 https://shafaq.com/en/Iraq-News/Federal-Court-defers-action-in-the-appeal-against-the-election-results
30 https://enablingpeace.org/ishm332/#Headline1

Sheri Laizer, a Middle East and North African expert specialist and well known commentator on the Kurdish issue. She is a senior contributing writer for iKurd.net. More about Sheri Laizer see below.

• Read more
• Part III: Iraq in the Shadow of Khomeinism – Part III: Iraq is NOT Iran! 24.12.2021
• Part II: Iraq in the Shadow of Khomeinism – Part II: Iran’s Proxies Parade Their Power Over Iraq 5.7.2021
• Part I: Iraq in the Shadow of Khomeinism – Part I: Baghdad And Erbil Under Threat 20.3.2021

Copyright © 2021 iKurd.net. All rights reserved