Had They Wanted to Save their Prestige, US Troops Would Better Withdraw from Iraq: Hezbollah Brigades

By Zeinab Daher

Beirut – In wake of the strike against Iraqi resistance bases in al-Anbar province, which was immediately claimed by the Pentagon, popular and official outrage dominated the country and resistance factions threatened the perpetrators with a tremendous retaliation.

Commenting on the crime, and reflecting the Iraqi resistance’s current stance, Hezbollah Brigades Spokesman Mohammad Mohie told al-Ahed news in an exclusive interview that the Americans are advised to leave the country better to save their dignity from being smashed by the Iraqi resistance factions.

The man stressed that the US has been defeated while the resistance was still emerging, hinting that defeating it now is a piece of cake for them minding their growing might as well as extraordinary ground experience.

Explaining the background of the crime, Mohie stated that the US was blaming Hezbollah Brigades of standing behind targeting some American bases most recently, the last of which was K-1 base, and claiming that an American contractor was killed inside it.

“It has been a clear and wide-scale campaign that the United States, its media outlets, as well as the ‘Israeli’ entity contributed to, in an attempt to create pretexts for targeting the Hezbollah Brigades and the Hashd al-Shaabi,” he stated.

Making clear why the US and ‘Israeli’ stances towards the Hashd are very hostile, Mohie said that they consider the Iraqi resistance factions as a threat to their existence and to the ‘Israeli’ entity’s security.

This explains their attempts to target them: “They were trying before this period to take advantage of the protests to take things to internal fighting and chaos but they failed to do so thanks to the awareness of the Iraqi people as well as the major deterring role of the resistance factions, their stances and presence.”

Reflecting more on the intentions behind the strike, the Hezbollah Brigades official said the US at this stage failed to create a cover and a pretext to strike the resistance factions and the Hashd, hence moved to the next step of creating direct pretexts that are represented by claiming that its bases have been attacked.

Technically, the man explained, the US didn’t target specific sites of Hezbollah Brigades, it rather targeted sites belonging to Hashd factions along the Iraqi-Syrian borders because it knows that their presence there is undesired [for it] and it has delivered several messages providing the necessity of evacuating the Hashd forces from that place, but it has failed and hence used this dirty way.

Casualties

The latest count is 27 martyrs and 51 injured, the man noted, although the strike was a major one in which the US used aerial vehicles and advanced weapons. They also targeted several sites, which makes the count unfinished yet, but we wish that it stops at this number, he said.

The attack targeted 40 million Iraqis!

According to the resistance group, it doesn’t consider that the matter stops at this number: “We tell the international community, the Iraqi, Islamic and Arab communities that the party targeted today is the 40 million Iraqi population. Those who were martyred represent 40 million Iraqis, and the same thing applies to those injured.”

He went on to say: “It is the sovereignty, dignity, existence and nation of 40 million Iraqis that were violated. The issue is not to be partitioned as per the number of the martyrs and the injured although we consider their souls are sacred, and the number of martyrs in this strike was a very big one.”

“Today, however, it is a matter of Iraqi sovereignty that was profaned in this strike. It is a crime that represents the blatant state terrorism in breach of Iraqi sovereignty. It is a bold marketing of weak pretexts and lies, hence the issue today requires a serious stand that is new and different from the past ones.”

Non-Iraqi martyrs?

Asked about what was rumored by certain media outlets regarding non-Iraqi casualties, Mr. Mohie told al-Ahed that the US always attempts to market such lies through its tendentious media outlets to make the Iraqi people accept this strike claiming that there are Iranians or other non-Iraqi martyred in those places.

In fact, the man explains, “the ones who were martyred in those bases are Iraqis and our sons, but those media outlets usually attempt to pass their lies and fabricate misleading news as a result of their defeat.”

A stupid strike

The US today went to the most fool operation that ever happened in Iraq over the past years, Mohie said.

“It has used to target the resistance factions and the Hashd al-Shaabi but has never announced this, or even signaled that the strikes are carried out by the ‘Israeli’ entity. Today, however, it was very flagrant, which we consider stupid and foolish, and will overturn on it. A good evidence on this is the popular reaction among the Iraqi public.”

The operation reflects US failure

According to the Hezbollah Brigades official, it is of course that the US have failed to make quick results inside Iraq. It has been pushing over the past period for civil war inside Iraq. In this respect, ‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was coordinating with US President Donald Trump and the US forces to take advantage of the protests to be abused to reach a civil war that would be used as a cover to strike the Iraqi resistance and Hashd bases, claiming that there are Iranian weapons that might threaten ‘Israel’.

Therefore, the pretext was available, the man made clear. “The US has been long plotting to reach such goals. It has been attempting to spread chaos and internal killing, to eventually weaken the main Iraqi power that is represented in the Hashd and the resistance factions and get them involved in internal struggle, so it can get rid of this annoying power that thwarted many of its plots, perhaps that of Daesh was the biggest and most participated in in terms of cash and weapons, as well as the numbers of militants who entered Syria and Iraq to implement such plot.”

This failure have pushed the US to this level, Mohie told al-Ahed.

"Now we believe that it is in big trouble and it has tended to this unprecedented strike, and most boldly announcing responsibility of committing it in public.”

The US couldn’t impose its political will, it couldn’t bring a Prime Minister that conforms its vision, Mohie said. He went on to explain that it didn’t succeed in dragging the Iraqi public, mainly the Shia, to internal fighting and clashes, hence it failed, “although we still expect many conspiracies since the US starts another phase as soon as it ends the previous one,” he stressed.

For now, we are in the post-Iraqi protests era.

Unity among the Iraqi people

“We thank God that made our enemies such fool,” the man said it with utmost transparency.

This idiocy was not accounted for by the United States. Perhaps it was only trying to deliver messages to the American public through this strike that it is saving its prestige as a major power by responding to the killing of one of its civilians, and that it doesn’t retreat such choice as it claims to be one of its redlines.

However, Mr. Mohie noted that the US didn’t take into consideration the repercussions of such strike inside the Iraqi home. “Indeed, all walks of Iraqi life today, whether protesters, people, or political powers with their different stances agree on condemning the US and demanding that its forces be expelled from the country.”

The US today received a strategic defeat, and the Iraqi people and resistance factions have the right to resist, the man emphasized. “For now, this strike gives us an opportunity, because after attempting to create enmity between the Iraqi people and the Hashd and resistance factions, and to ban them from taking part in the political life, things have gone the other way and we have dealt the US a heavy blow. We wish it remains such fool until it loses more in Iraq.”

Expelling US troops from Iraq

When asked about the plan to expel US troops from Iraq, the resistance spokemans reflected back to the year 2003, when the entire US presence in Iraq reached 250,000 soldiers, and the resistance was in its beginnings but was able to defeat it… “The resistance was established after the occupation. It is true that it had roots before the occupation, but this form of military resistance was established after the occupation. Despite its limited capabilities, it was able to terrify the Americans and force them to withdraw. They were begging regional parties to ask the resistance factions not to target US soldiers as they exit the country from the Kuwaiti border.”

As for now, the man made clear that the Iraqi resistance factions and the Hashd have high capabilities and expertise, high training, and field experience that even the US troops don’t enjoy. “This means that Iraq is capable today of forcing the limited number of US soldiers and military bases to exit its lands. We’ve said before that our missiles couldn’t reach the Ain al-Assad base, but this became possible today and the US knows it very well. The US has got itself involved in a challenge and confrontation that would damage its prestige and position as a major power.”

The anticipated response

We’ve announced readiness for confrontation, the man stated. “We’re just waiting for the leadership’s command as the matter requires studying the situation, repercussions, the Iraqi and regional political and security situation.”

The Americans today were begging for a no response, Mohie said.

“They were swinging between begging for a no response and threatening with another attack, urging us to be rational, take part in the political life and practice things normally. Everything revealed their begging for not responding because the US knows that had we retaliated the size of this response will be tremendous and dangerous.”

Message to the Iraqi people

“We are the sons of the Iraqi people, we stand by their side, whether they have demands, whether in defending them as we did against Daesh gangs that represented a major existential threat to them. We stand by their side in their happy and sad times, and we are their credit that they take pride in,” Mohie told his nationals.

And the Americans are advised to?

Had they wanted to save their soldiers from being targeted, Mohie told the Americans that they have to leave the Iraqi lands.

“They don’t have any reason to stay here. The Iraqi people rejects them and their crimes have reached a level that the Iraqis announced resistance against them. If they don’t want to lose their prestige and dignity, and be exposed to the world in face of our might, they are advised to leave the Iraqi lands,” the Hezbollah Brigades spokesman concluded.