By Reuters
Several powerful Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq are prepared to disarm for the first time to avert the threat of an escalating conflict with the United States (US) Trump administration, 10 senior commanders and Iraqi officials told Reuters.
The move to defuse tensions follows repeated warnings issued privately by US officials to the Iraqi government since Trump took power in January, according to the sources who include six local commanders of four major militias.
The officials told Baghdad that unless it acted to disband the militias operating on its soil, America could target the groups with airstrikes, the people added.
- Advertisement -
Izzat al-Shahbndar, a senior Shi’ite Muslim politician close to Iraq’s governing alliance, told Reuters that discussions between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and several militia leaders were “very advanced”, and the groups were inclined to comply with US calls for disarmament.
- Advertisement -
“The factions are not acting stubbornly or insisting on continuing in their current form,” he said, adding that the groups were “fully aware” they could be targeted by the US.
The six militia commanders interviewed in Baghdad and a southern province, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation, are from the Kataib Hezbollah, Nujabaa, Kataib Sayyed al Shuhada and Ansarullah al Awfiyaa groups.
“Trump is ready to take the war with us to worse levels, we know that, and we want to avoid such a bad scenario,” said a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful Shi’ite militia, who spoke from behind a black face mask and sunglasses.
The commanders said their main ally and patron, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) military force, had given them its blessing to take whatever decisions they deemed necessary to avoid being drawn into a potentially ruinous conflict with the US and Israel.
- Advertisement -
The militias are part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of about 10 hardline Shi’ite armed factions that collectively command about 50,000 fighters and arsenals that include long range missiles and anti aircraft weapons, according to two security officials who monitor militias’ activities.
The Resistance group, a key pillar of Iran’s network of regional proxy forces, have claimed responsibility for dozens of missile and drone attacks on Israel and US forces in Iraq and Syria since the Gaza war erupted about 18 months ago.
Farhad Alaaeldin, Sudani’s foreign affair adviser, told Reuters in response to queries about disarmament talks that the prime minister was committed to ensuring all weapons in Iraq were under state control through “constructive dialogue with various national actors”.
The two Iraqi security officials said Sudani was pressing for disarmament from all the militias of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which declare their allegiance to Iran’s IRGC or Quds Force rather than to Baghdad.
Some groups have already largely evacuated their headquarters and reduced their presences in major cities including Mosul and Anbar since mid-January for fear of being hit by air attacks, according to officials and commanders.
Many commanders have also stepped up their security measures in that time, changing their mobile phones, vehicles and abodes more frequently, they said. The US State Department said it continued to urge Baghdad to rein in the militias.
“These forces must respond to Iraq’s commander-inchief and not to Iran,” it added.— Reuters
