Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Deputy Chairman of Iraq's Tehran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis said on Saturday that as Iraq was on the verge of defeat in 2014 when ISIS rolled over a third of the country from the north, Iran’s weaponry, military advisory and war planning aid prevented Iraq's fall, he added.
Tehran also foiled plots aimed at creating "new religious sedition and sectarian wars," al-Muhandis said.
"Thanks to the presence of the Iranian military advisors and the Lebanese Hezbollah forces, we first secured Baghdad and then cleared the Samarra road of terrorists, since terrorists were trying to capture the city," IRNA quoted him as saying.
"If terrorists had reached Samarra and the Holy Shrines, similar to 2006, a religious sedition would have overwhelmed Iraq," he added.
He claimed that Iran "was the only country which stood by Iraq while Baghdad was short of weapons and military hardware and the Iraqi Army had lost two thirds of its forces."
The Shiite leader also hailed the role of Iran in helping the Syrian regime stand on its feet and preventing it from collapse.
Al-Muhandis is on the US terror list and has a death sentence from a Kuwaiti court for his involvement in attacks on the US and French embassies in the 1980s in Kuwait and other terrorist activities. The Americans are believed to have attempted his capture but he had escaped to Iran.
At a press briefing in late October, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert named al-Muhandis a "terrorist" after she was asked about reports that al-Muhandis was a Hashd al-Shaabi commander and if he had opened a recruiting center in Kirkuk.
The Hashd al-Shaabi shortly thereafter came to the defense of its commander al-Muhandis and condemned US comments that he was a designated terrorist, denouncing the accusations as "useless".
The Iraqi army and Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi took over the city of Kirkuk in mid-October 2017 after Peshmerga forces pulled out in the face of a major incursion they launched into the city.
