Iran-backed militias preventing defeat of ISIS in Iraq: coalition spokesman

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran-backed militias are preventing the defeat of the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Iraq, US-led coalition spokesperson Colonel Myles B. Caggins III told Rudaw English on Wednesday. 

Coalition forces placed operations against ISIS remnants and sleeper cells in Iraq on pause after a spate of rocket and missile attacks targeting US military personnel stationed at Iraqi army bases. 

Pro-Iran factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi, are thought to be behind the attacks, acting as Iranian proxies. 

“Our real focus here is defeating ISIS, and those groups who are attacking Iraqi bases, injuring Iraqi soldiers, killing Iraqi soldiers, and threatening coalition troops are preventing us from our goal of defeating ISIS,” Caggins said.

Following months of heightened tensions between the US and Iraq’s influential neighbour Iran, rocket attacks on US infrastructure and personnel in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and elsewhere in Iraq have become increasingly frequent.

In January, a barrage of rockets was fired at the sprawling US diplomatic mission in Baghdad, hitting an embassy cafeteria and injuring a staffer.

On December 27 of last year, a rocket attack on the K-1 military base in Kirkuk, widely blamed on the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia, killed a US civilian contractor and injured other personnel.

The US responded with airstrikes on Kataib Hezbollah targets on December 29, killing 25 of the militia’s fighters. A few days later, supporters of Kataib Hezbollah stormed the US embassy compound in Baghdad.

This was followed on January 3 by a US drone strike on Baghdad airport targeting Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and PMF deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, killing both. 

Iran retaliated by firing two dozen ballistic missiles at bases hosting US troops in Iraq. No US personnel were killed in the strikes, but dozens sustained “traumatic brain injuries”. 

Since the Iranian missile strikes, the US government has held talks with the Baghdad officials to bring in “additional defensive systems” to protect coalition troops, Caggins said.

“When the coalition arrived in 2014 to fight ISIS, the group did not have any sort of air force, and they certainly did not have the type of missile threat from neighboring countries,” he said.

Recent reports indicated the Americans were weighing up plans to install Patriot missile defense systems in Iraqi bases. Caggins said such equipment has not been put in place. 

“Any effort that the US and coalition has to protect our bases are done with the coordination with the government of Iraq, and no decision has been made about any additional defensive system or even troops,” he said.

The US has 5,200 troops in Iraq stationed at bases across the country to assist, advice, and train Iraqi and Peshmerga forces as part of the international coalition.

The presence of these forces, however, has become increasingly contentious. 

US troops were invited back to Iraq by the Baghdad government in 2014 to help oust ISIS from Iraq’s northern cities.

However, recent US strikes against Iranian personnel and pro-Iran proxies on Iraqi soil have led to growing calls for US troops to be expelled. 

The Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution on January 5 calling for the US to leave the country. 

Iraq is now trying to reach a new arrangement with coalition forces whereby foreign troops are permitted to remain in Iraq, but under the name of NATO rather than the US. 

Their role would be limited to training and advising, meaning they would no longer be permitted to carry out ground operations.

The coalition has now has resumed joint operations against ISIS after more than a month’s hiatus.

Caggins confirmed the US-led coalition remains committed to assisting Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS, despite the threats posed by Iran-backed militias.

“The coalition will look at where to position its advisors from now on as things have been changed, and it is likely that our operation will adjust based on the threats,” he said.

“But this is result of the success of our partners, and those who wants to interfere with that success. I don’t know their motivations, but we remain committed, and that is why we are here, to defeat ISIS remnants,” he said.

“ISIS is down, but not out, and they still remain a threat,” Caggins added.

The Pentagon has said in successive reports that ISIS remnants are still active, capable of conducting small-scale attacks, and enjoy freedom of movement in Iraq’s isolated mountains and deserts.

“ISIS maintained both freedom of movement and the ability to hide and transport fighters and materiel in rural areas where [the Iraqi Security Forces] presence is less intense and ISIS can more easily avoid detection and capture,” the Pentagon’s Lead Inspector General said in its latest report.

“ISIS retains enough manpower and planning capabilities to conduct regular small-scale attacks or ambushes against the ISF, the PMF, or local civilians accused of aiding the ISF or informing on ISIS activities,” it added.

The PMFs were created in 2014 to fight ISIS following a call from Iraq’s highest religious authority, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Many of the factions that heeded his call were already-established Shiite militias with ties to Iran who had resisted the US occupation after 2003.

Since the territorial defeat of ISIS in December 2017, many of these factions have been integrated into Iraq’s official security apparatus. Many of their former commanders now hold significant sway in the federal parliament as part of the Fatih bloc. 

Many observers fear Iraq could become the site of a proxy war between the US and Iran.

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