Iraqi militant groups comply with Iran’s request, decrease attacks on US troop

Middle East, News February 19, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

Iran-aligned militant groups in Iraq have complied with the request to pause attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The pause came after Iran’s elite Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani visited Baghdad in January this year.

Qaani made a quick visit to Iraq shortly after Washington blamed the Iran-backed militant groups for the killing of three U.S. soldiers at the Tower 22 outpost in Jordan.

During his visit on January 29, 2024, Qaani met with representatives of several armed groups in Baghdad and requested them to dial down their attacks on the U.S. military personnel and outposts in the Middle East to avoid further complications in an already complicated security situation.

Qaani took office as the commander of Iran’s Quds force after his predecessor General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated by a U.S. drone in Baghdad four years ago. According to some sources, Qaani advised the militant factions that targeting American personnel could provoke significant U.S. retaliation.

He urged the militias to maintain a low profile to mitigate the risk of U.S. airstrikes targeting their top leaders, causing damage to critical infrastructure, or potentially triggering a direct response from Iran, the sources reported.

Although one faction initially resisted Qaani’s request, most of the others complied. Following his visit to Iraq, the Iran-backed group Kataib Hezbollah declared a suspension of its attacks.

Since the start of February, there have been no reported attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, in contrast to over 20 incidents in the preceding two weeks before Qaani’s visit. This surge in violence stemmed from the groups’ opposition to Israel’s conflict in Gaza.

^{A CH-47 Chinook flown by U.S. Army pilots of 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment, General Support Aviation Battalion, 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, loading Norwegian Telemark Battalion Soldiers, Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Jan. 11, 2023. (Image Credit: US Army/Sgt. Julio Hernandez)}

The news about Iran’s request to dial down the attacks on the U.S. forces was only confirmed by independent sources. Qaani’s visit was mentioned in the Iraqi media but the details about his intentions were not made public. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as well as Kataib Hezbollah and other involved parties did not release any details about Iran’s involvement in controlling the frequency of militant attacks in Iraq and Syria.

The pause in attacks has provided a rare opportunity for Washington and Baghdad to reconsolidate their relations which had been strained after several U.S. military personnel were attacked over the course of the last few months. The government in Baghdad, a rare ally of both Tehran and Washington, is trying to prevent the country from becoming a battlefield for foreign powers and asked Iran to help rein in the groups after the Jordan attack.

The United States currently has some 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria on an ‘advise and assist’ mission. They are part of an international coalition deployed in 2014 to fight Islamic State, mainly in the west of the country and eastern Syria.