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Iraq
A young boy holds a poster showing top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani (left) and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as supporters of the latter take part in Friday prayers in Sadr City, Baghdad on January 3, 2020. Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s notorious Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday called for armed Iranian-backed proxies across the region to come together to form an international alliance, marking a radical shift from his appeals in recent years for Iraq to avoid being dragged into US-Iran tensions.
“I call on Iraqi resistance factions especially, and factions outside of Iraq, to instantly meet to announce the formation of ‘International Resistance Regiments’,” Sadr said in a statement on Sunday.
His statement came as Iraqi parliament voted on a resolution to ask the Iraqi government to end the presence of the US-led Global Coalition against Islamic State (ISIS) forces.
Sadr slammed the vote as a “pitiful response” in comparison to America’s violations of Iraq’s sovereignty, “and its public announcement of enmity to religion and sect”.
He called for a host of stronger measures, including the closure of the US embassy in Iraq, expulsion of US forces “in a humiliating manner”, and a boycott of US products.
Iraq is currently playing battlefield to skyrocketing US-Iran tensions, with the US conducting airstrikes on Iranian and Iran-backed targets in Iraq in response to a spate of rocket attacks against bases hosting US forces in the country.
The US and Iran are at loggerheads over a number of issues, including Iranian adventurism through its Shiite proxies across the Region. Iran has already threatened retaliation against US targets across Iraq and Syria.
In the early hours of Friday, US airstrikes targeted and killed powerful Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi).
Friday’s strike was preceded by a US attack on the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia on December 29, killing 25 militiamen.
Sadr became the founding leader of southern Iraq’s Mahdi Army in 2003, during US occupation of the country. His militia killed and injured scores of American servicemen.
He disbanded the militias in 2008. However, he announced the reactivation of the Mahdi Army on Friday, referring to himself as the “head of Iraqi National Resistance.”
Sadr has commanded his Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades) militia force since 2014. He ordered their dissolution in 2018 in all sites except Karbala and Samarra, home to holy Shiite shrines.
Friday’s assassinations have proven a tipping point for the country’s Iran-aligned Shiite political class, including Sadr.
As head of the Sayirun alliance, he has in recent years advocated for an Iraq insulated from US-Iranian rivalry, touting what he has called “an Iraqi decision” - namely the end of foreign interference in Iraq.
His stance has put him on hostile terms with the Fatih Coalition, an Iran-backed political alliance whose leaders also command PMF factions. However, his call to arms appears to broach the gap with Fatih.
Iran-backed proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and older factions within Iraq’s PMF, have for nearly a decade presented themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” against American interventionism.
Many Iraqi factions, such as al-Nujaba paramilitary group – designated a terrorist organization by the US - have already fought alongside Afghan and Pakistani Shiite militias and Hezbollah in Syria, to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Head of al-Nujaba Akram al-Kabee welcomed Sadr’s call.
“With determination, conviction, preparedness and readiness [we go] towards ‘International Resistance Regiments’,” Kabee said in a tweet on Sunday.
Abo Alaa al-Walae, head of the PMF’s Kataib Sayid al-Shuhada faction thanked Sadr for the proposal, using the hashtag “towards international resistance to defeat America.”
Other militia leaders such as Kataib Imam Ali’s Shibl al-Zaidy have also pledged allegiance to the proposal.
Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, vowed to expel US troops from Iraq in a speech made on Sunday.
Sadr’s call to arms means the two major Shiite parties, who hold over 100 out of 329 parliamentary seats, are now threatening US forces with military action.
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