Iraqi Resistance Fully Prepared Ahead Of Reported US Aggression

By Staff, Agencies

Iraqi resistance forces stressed that they stand fully ready to confront any possible act of aggression by the US occupation military, which is widely reported to be gearing up for aggressions against the positions of Iraq’s elite pro-government anti-terro Popular Mobilization Units [PMU], known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi.

Relatively, Spokesman for Kata’ib Hezbollah [Brigades], a major PMU faction, Mohammed Mohie, warned on Monday that the latest activities by the American occupation forces in Iraq were “not accidental,” according to the Arabic-language Almaalomah news agency.

He said Washington considered Hezbollah Brigades the main obstacle to its schemes in Iraq, and therefore sought to undermine the group.

Resistance groups, especially Hezbollah Brigades, are powerful enough to face up to US troops, Mohie added.

He also stressed that Hezbollah Brigades were well aware of the plots the US was hatching in Iraq and abroad to stage attacks on resistance groups.

On Thursday, the group revealed that the US military was preparing to carry out massive aerial operations [backed by ground troops] against bases of the force, which is currently busy helping Baghdad in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

A day later, The New York Times reported that the Pentagon had ordered planners at the US military’s Central Command and in Iraq to draw up a strategy to dismantle Hezbollah Brigades.

The US has, in recent weeks, carried out a string of deadly airstrikes on Iraqi military bases, including those held by resistance fighters.

Baghdad denounced the attacks as violation of its sovereignty and aggression against its official armed forces.

Earlier on Monday, American and Iraqi military sources told AFP that at least four US Patriot missile systems would be assembled at bases hosting American forces across Iraq.

One of the batteries was deployed to the Ain al-Asad base last week and was being assembled. The base was targeted by Iran in January in retaliation for the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

Another Patriot system was deployed to a base in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region.

The US is also planning to send two more batteries to Iraq, although the systems are still in Kuwait awaiting deployment.

The deployment of Patriot missile systems comes in defiance of an Iraqi parliament vote in January that called for an end to the presence of all foreign troops, including some 5,200 American forces.

Earlier this month, US-led coalition forces withdrew from three bases in Iraq in line with Washington’s plans to consolidate its troops in other locations in the Arab country.