On Thursday, January 4, a few hundred meters from the Iraqi Interior Ministry in eastern Baghdad, a US drone strike hit a logistics support center for units of the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), a government force dominated by pro-Iranian Shiite militias. Mushtaq Taleb Al-Saidi, an Al-Nujaba official also known as Abu Taqwa, was killed along with another fighter from the armed faction, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (the regime's ideological army). The Pentagon confirmed that Washington was behind the "act of self-defense" against Al-Saidi, who was "actively involved in organizing and carrying out attacks against US troops."
"On the day after the anniversary of the death of Qassem Soleimani [the Iranian general killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020], this is a deliberate message from the Americans to say that if the attacks don't stop, a senior leader will be next on the list," said Michael Knights, Iraq expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 8, pro-Iran Shiite militias have carried out more than a hundred attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria, in the name of the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," to denounce US support for Israel.
"The US has noticed an increase in attacks on their bases so this is, in their eyes, a justified response," said Renad Mansour, Iraq specialist at the think tank Chatham House.
Al-Saidi, PMF's deputy commander for Baghdad operations, was responsible for drone logistics and sophisticated weaponry, according to Knights. His militia, Al-Nujaba, was placed on Washington's list of terrorist organizations in 2019 and is said to be behind most of the attacks. It is the main target of the seven retaliatory strikes carried out by the Americans. Its leader, Akram Al-Kaabi, who is close to Iran, considers himself the "face" of armed resistance to the Americans.
This targeted assassination has provoked the ire of militia leaders. They are promising reprisals and have made several calls for the immediate departure of the 2,500 American soldiers deployed in Iraq as part of the international coalition fighting Islamic State (IS). The American attack has sparked all the more anger in their ranks as it comes as the "axis of resistance" to Israel is being tested. Iran has been working to build this resistance in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
'Attack on Iraqi sovereignty'
Israel eliminated the Iranian general Razi Moussavi, in charge of logistics for the Revolutionary Guards in Syria, in Damascus on December 25, and the number two of Hamas, Saleh Al-Arouri, in a Lebanese Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut on January 2. An attack that left at least 84 dead, claimed on Thursday by Islamic State, coincided with the commemorations in Kerman, Iran, of the anniversary of the death of General Soleimani, the architect of the alliance.
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