Shiite militias step up Iraq attacks on US troops
Source: boston
FILE - In this Wednesday, June 8, 2011 file photo, the transfer cases containing the remains, from left, of Army Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri of Chicago, Ill., Pfc. Christopher B. Fishbeck of Victorville, Calif., Pfc. Michael B. Cook of Middletown, Ohio, and Emilio J. Campo Jr. of Madelia, Minn., sit inside a U.S. Air Force C-5 cargo plane upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The Department of Defense announced the deaths of Olivieri, Fishbeck, Cook and Campo Jr., who were supporting Operation New Dawn in Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, June 8, 2011 file photo, the transfer cases containing the remains, from left, of Army Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri of Chicago, Ill., Pfc. Christopher B. Fishbeck of Victorville, Calif., Pfc. Michael B. Cook of Middletown, Ohio, and Emilio J. Campo Jr. of Madelia, Minn., sit inside a U.S. Air Force C-5 cargo plane upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The Department of Defense announced the deaths of Olivieri, Fishbeck, Cook and Campo Jr., who were supporting Operation New Dawn in Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
BAGHDAD—Shiite
militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq,
making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces. The
militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its
presence in the country past the end of this year.
Three
separate militias have been involved in the attacks, particularly a
small but deadly group known as the Hezbollah Brigades, believed to be
funded and trained by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and its special
operations wing, the Quds Force.
The
militia attacks -- mainly in the Shiite heartland in southern Iraq --
raise the prospect of increased violence against Americans if a residual
U.S. force remains in the country past 2011, a possibility being
considered by the Baghdad government to help maintain a still fragile
security.
They also point to
the persistent efforts by Shiite-majority Iran, the United States' top
regional rival, to influence Iraq after the Americans' exit.
In
a statement targeted at the militias, Iraqi parliament Speaker Osama
al-Nujaifi called Thursday on all groups to support the government in
Baghdad if it ultimately decides to ask U.S. troops to stay.
In
the latest American deaths, a senior U.S. official in Baghdad said
Thursday that three U.S. troops were killed a day earlier when a huge
rocket known as an IRAM struck a remote desert base just a few miles
(kilometers) from the Iranian border in Iraq's southern Wasit province.
The
deaths brought the monthly U.S. military toll to 15, nearly all of them
of them from attacks suspected to have been planned by planned by
Shiite militias. That's the highest number of military deaths in Iraq
since June 2009, and the most combat-related deaths since June 2008.
Since March 2003, 4,469 American troops have died in Iraq.
The
IRAMs are a hallmark of Hezbollah Brigades, or Kataib Hezbollah, a
militia that U.S. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the military's top
spokesman in Iraq, said is almost exclusively reliant on Iran.
The
Hezbollah Brigades, which has links to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, is
solely focused on attacking U.S. troops and other American personnel and
claimed responsibility for a June 6 rocket attack that killed five
soldiers in Baghdad.
The
force, estimated at about 1,000 fighters, receives unlimited funding
from Iran, an Iraqi lawmaker familiar with militia operations said. Its
militants are paid between $300 to $500 each month, said a senior Iraqi
intelligence official. He described the militia as the most difficult
for counterterror forces to penetrate because, like al-Qaida, operatives
are segregated into cells that strictly kept apart.
The
lawmaker and Iraqi official, along with several U.S. officials, spoke
on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
The
new spate of attacks on U.S. troops began in mid-March, after the Obama
administration started hinting it would prefer to see some American
troops remain in Iraq into 2012 to help preserve the nation's shaky
security and stave off Iranian influence. About 46,000 U.S. troops
remain in Iraq, and those are supposed to leave by Dec. 31 under the
terms of a 2008 security agreement between Washington and Baghdad.
Also involved in
anti-U.S. attacks is the Promised Day Brigade, linked to anti-American
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army.
Al-Sadr
holds considerable sway in Iraq's government, and U.S. officials
believe the Promised Day Brigade -- which is five times the size of the
Hezbollah Brigades -- poses more of a threat to Iraq's long-term
stability than the other militias. Al-Sadr's political party holds 39
seats in parliament, and it was with his support that Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki was able to keep his job for a second term after 2010
elections.
Al-Sadr disarmed
his Mahdi Army after it was roundly defeated by U.S. and Iraqi forces in
fierce 2008 battles in the southern port city of Basra. But he created
the Promised Day Brigade to keep a militia on hand to "resist the
occupier," a U.S. military intelligence official said.
The
force gets hundreds of millions of dollars in financial assistance,
including from Iran, a large number of sympathizers in Turkey and
donations from around the Muslim world, a senior Mahdi Army commander
said. It is also funded by the Sadrist political organization, to which
every party lawmaker and minister donates about $5,000 a month.
Iran
contributes far less to the Promised Day Brigade than it does to other
militias, in part because al-Sadr has avoided allowing Tehran to wield
as much control over the force, said the commander, who spoke on
condition of anonymity to discuss the force's inner workings.
Though
he lived in Iran for the last several years, officials and analysts say
al-Sadr wants to keep Tehran at arm's length for political reasons amid
the Iraqi public's strong nationalist feeling. Still, Iranian money and
weapons continue to flow to al-Sadr because of their shared animosity
against the U.S.
The third
Shiite militia targeting Americans in Iraq is Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or Band
of the People of Righteousness, a splinter Sadrist group that now
competes with the Promised Day Brigade for support.
It
does not have al-Sadr's backing, and an Iraqi close to the extremist
group said it relies on Iran for support, including around $5 million in
cash and weapons each month. Officials believe there are fewer than
1,000 Asaib Ahl al-Haq militiamen, and their leaders live in Iran.
The
Iraqi intelligence official estimated about 3,000 Shiite militiamen --
two-thirds of them Mahdi Army -- were jailed by U.S. forces during the
height of the war but later released by Iraq's government because of a
lack of evidence to hold them. Most of them have made their way back to
the front lines, the official said, more fueled by anger at American
troops than ever.
Former Marine Ashwin Madia, who served in Iraq in 2005-06 and is interim chairman of VoteVets.org,
a veterans advocacy group that has been critical of the Iraq war, said
the deadly month should convince President Barack Obama to pull U.S.
troops out by the end of the year as promised.
"If
we stay in Iraq past our deadline, there is no reason to believe that
violent attacks won't further increase, leading to more American
deaths," Madia said Thursday.
Buchanan,
the U.S. military spokesman, said the attacks are "not going to have an
impact on us leaving or staying" because that decision will mostly be
up to Iraq's government.
But
he raised the specter of Iran using the militias to keep Iraq unstable
so it can extert more influence once U.S. troops leave.
"Their overall preference is a weak Iraq," he said.
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