Iraq’s Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi to Al-Ahed: We Will Defend Iraq under the Banner of the Armed Forces

By Yousef Jaber

The US targeted three posts belonging to Iraq’s Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilization Units [PMU] (Brigades 14 and 46). The posts were located  13 km inside the Iraqi borders in Al-Qa'im District in western Anbar Province. The strikes mark a clear violation of Iraq's sovereignty and pose a threat to its stability and security.

Under the pretext of responding to drone attacks that targeted American personnel and facilities in Iraq, American warplanes bombed units that are part of the Iraqi armed forces, knowing that the Iraqi parliament already voted to end the presence of the international coalition led by Washington.

For its part, the PMU condemned the American aggression, which claimed four lives. It stressed that it reserves the legal right to respond to these attacks and to hold the perpetrators accountable on Iraqi soil.

PMU leader Jamal al-Din Al-Saghir, aka "Abu Zia”, told Al-Ahed News that the American strike is a violation of Iraq's sovereignty, noting that these attacks have been repeated many times since the targeting of the two martyr commanders, Hajj Qassem Soleimani and Hajj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Al-Saghir explained that the blatant attacks are characteristic of the United States and are carried out against every revolutionary movement that is attempting to create freedom and safety for itself and its country (in reference to the Popular Mobilization), unless these movements are obedient and subservient to America.

The PMU leader stressed to Al-Ahed that the Iraqi people reject the US presence, as the people know how to run their own country.

"The whole world saw how the Hashd and the Iraqi security forces are the ones who expelled Daesh, America’s creation, and we liberated our land from this terrorist gland."

Al-Saghir also considers the targeting to be part of a broader framework designed to weaken Iraq, its security forces, and the PMU. But he expressed the PMU’s readiness to defend Iraq against any aggression under the banner of the armed forces.