Rockets fired by pro-Iranian group target Kurdistan region Iraq
The US has warned Iraq it will close its embassy in Baghdad and hinted at striking the Iranian-backed groups if the attacks do not stop.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANDEMONSTRATORS GATHER outside the Kurdistan Parliament building in Erbil, Iraq, in October 2017(photo credit: AZAD LASHKARI / REUTERS)
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq was incensed Wednesday night as rockets were fired from Nineveh Plains outside Mosul toward Erbil. The Kurdistan autonomous region in Iraq is a stable area, and the attack by Iranian-backed groups is seen as a major test and threat directed at the region’s stability and US presence.The US has warned Iraq it will close its embassy in Baghdad and hinted at striking the Iranian-backed groups if the attacks do not stop.There have been dozens of attacks in recent months, including 107-mm. rocket fire and explosives aimed at convoys that supply the US. The US-led anti-ISIS coalition closed eight facilities in the last six months amid the attacks.The US assassinated IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in January after similar attacks in December killed a US contractor. In March, the pro-Iranian groups killed three personnel from the coalition.The pro-Iranian groups are often linked to Kataib Hezbollah. They have support from the government paramilitary group Hashd al-Shaabi, a one-time militia that became a government-supported entity that has some 100,000 men in its various branches.Iran has close connections to its units, such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and the Badr Corps. However, in recent months, new groups popped up in Iraq, often serving as fake ones that are actually made up of Kataib Hezbollah members, which have targeted the US and convoys that supply its forces. Iran’s goal is to create a plethora of groups so that no one can be seen as responsible. The US has warned it could retaliate.The US has brought together some 25 ambassadors of various countries in Baghdad to express concern and demand that Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi stop the attacks. The US wants strategic dialogue with Baghdad. It sent forces back to Iraq solely to fight ISIS in 2014.Washington is moving its several thousand personnel to the Kurdistan Region or concentrating them there, as most US bases, except Union III in Baghdad and Al-Asad, are closed. However, the pro-Iranian groups want to show they can strike at Erbil and the Kurdish region. They fired a ballistic missile at this area in January, and in September 2018 they targeted Kurdish dissidents near Koya. In the latest attacks, six rockets were fired, and several fell northeast of Erbil.Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, called on Kadhimi to condemn the attacks and find those responsible. The brazen attack on Wednesday came a day after pro-Iranian militias fired a rocket in Baghdad that murdered several members of the same family.These groups are showing that they control Iraq and that there is no accountability. It is also the one-year anniversary of massive protests in southern Iraq by young people tired of the pro-Iranian militias, lack of jobs and the general Iranian occupation of Iraq, which has led to Iran siphoning off resources, jobs, electricity and basically everything it can from southern Iraq, impoverishing an area that is one of the most oil-rich in the world.
Iran turned this part of Iraq into its “near abroad” and held it hostage. It has used Iraq to strike at Saudi Arabia and the US and also to run weapons to Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It also transferred ballistic missiles to Iraq in 2018 and 2019. The pro-Iranian militias now threaten the one area in Iraq where US and foreign troops have been totally safe. This is the Kurdistan Region, which is flourishing with investment and has been free from terrorism.The rocket fire is a message that more could come. It came from near Mosul, and the rockets traveled several dozen kilometers. This shows that Hashd- or PMU-controlled areas can be used for rocket fire against the KRG, brazenly and without any consequences.A white truck of the type often used in these attacks, with launchers in its cargo bed for rockets thought to be larger than 122 mm., was used and then abandoned. It is unclear if Iraq will crack down and stop the perpetrators of these attacks.
