The US military is paying very close attention to Iran’s violent proxy militia groups in Iraq following reports that they will start killing US troops once the Islamic State (IS) has left the country.
The IS defeat is drawing closer. It is estimated that the group which formerly had 25,000 members is now down to a few thousand. This means that the Hezbollah threat is drawing closer.
Hezbollah is one of the biggest and most brutal militias in the region. It has been trained by Iranian forces. Last week, it warned the US that if it does not leave Iraq it will have to face a new war.
Jafar al-Hosseini, a spokesman and senior commander of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group, issued a similar threat earlier this year.
There is strong reason to believe that the threat is real, so the United States is getting prepared to counter the group.
A US military official said that NATO is being alerted, as well as the UN and the Gulf countries, because Iran’s malign influence is a very big issue.
Hezbollah, which has already killed US citizens, was formed a decade ago by Iran’s Quds Force – a branch of the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with the aim of targeting US troops in Iraq.
The Quds Force trained the group in how to manufacture explosive devices and rocket systems. Approximately 500 US deaths are on its hands.
Iran wants to ultimately spread hegemony across Syria, Iraq and Lebanon – the crescent of Shiite hegemony. Thus, it funds and equips Hezbollah in an attempt to realise its goal.
It is able to do so thanks to the 2015 nuclear deal led by former President Obama who provided the Iranian regime with a huge amount of funds which it is using to fund its militias and spread terror.
The US is standing in the way of this goal as it wants to remain in Iraq until Baghdad is steady, and can survive without Tehran.
The Iranian regime does not want this – it wants the US to leave ASAP. It also believes that for as long as it pursues its goals with militias, it can deny any involvement by claiming to have nothing to do with it.
However, no one is fooled. Iran’s intentions are very clear and the threat of Hezbollah is very real. International action needs to be taken immediately before Iran gets any closer to achieving hegemony in the region.
Source » ncr-iran