By Shirin Dawoud
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Sunni tribal leaders accuse the Iraqi government of handing over military power to Iranian advisors, referring to the killing of an Iranian commander in the country last week as further proof.
“Since the outbreak of the conflict Iran has wanted to turn Iraq into its own backyard through its agents,” said Anbar tribal chief Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Nael. “Now the military presence of Iran in Iraq has become clear as it has exceeded the Iranian advisers to thousand of other soldiers.”
Sepah News, the news agency of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, said that Hamid Taqawi, commander of Iranian forces in Samarrah, was killed on Saturday by an Islamic State (ISIS) sniper.
Sunni tribes in Anbar saw the death of the Iranian commander as Iran’s entrenchment in Iraqi affairs, especially in the fight against ISIS.
“The Iraqi government is a tool in the hands of Iran,” said Sheikh al-Nael.
Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalgh (MEK) published a statement this week, claiming that 7,000 Iranian paramilitary fighters (Basij) and military advisors have entered Iraq since the war against ISIS started last summer.
Sheikh Nael said that in addition to Tehran’s military involvement, Iranian Shiite clerics regularly release fatwas about the war in Iraq.
“We as Sunni Arab tribes will fight the Iranian presence in Iraq,” he told Rudaw. “We will not allow them to occupy Iraq.”
Sheikh Nael urged neighboring Arab states to stand up to Iran’s “sectarian interference of Iraq.”
Some Arab tribes in Western Anbar have taken up arms against ISIS, but Sheikh Nael said that they are no match for the radical group and therefore Sunni Arab states should arm the tribes to fight ISIS “and the Iranian aggression.”
Sheikh Fihran al-Sadid, another tribal leader in Ramadi, said that the Iraqi army has lost credibility by working with Iranian advisors.
“If Iran admitted the death of its military commander in Iraq by the Islamic State, so how could the Iraqi government still deny it?”
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