Delivering Vital Messages
"At the embassy on New Year's Eve, protesters also wrote several slogans on the walls, such as 'US embassy closed by order of the people', 'Death to America and Israel' and 'Qasem Soleimani is our leader'. Provocatively, some also wrote, 'The uncle was here', in reference to Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' Quds Force commander."
"The groups were from Kataib Hezbollah, the Badr Organization, Saraya al-Khorasani and Asaib Ahl al-Haq. They raised their factions' flags in the protests and on the embassy walls."
"Also attending the violent protest were many prominent PMU leaders such as PMU deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, PMU chief Faleh al-Fayadh, Qais al-Kjazali, Hadi al-Amiri, Hamed al-Jazaeri and some of the PMU’s Fatah members of parliament."
Ali Mamouri, Al Monitor (Pulse on the Middle East)
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REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani PMU terrorist supporters set the US Embassy wall on fire in Baghdad as they protest airstrikes on their bases, Dec. 31, 2019.
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"Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief."Well, then didn't the Popular Mobilization Forces umbrella group commanding dozens of Shiite militias empowered, trained, armed by Iran and supported by the al Quds division of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps show the great Satan who controls what happens in Iraq? Just because one of their groups -- Kataib Hezbollah -- bombarded U.S. military installations killing an American contractor and injuring several U.S. servicemen, what makes the U.S. think they have the right to retaliate by bombing Kataib Hezbollah weapons depots and headquarters?
"A situation that could have easily escalated out of control was handled with tactical restraint, and everyone was able to walk away."
Maj.Charlie Dietz, spokesman, U.S. military, Baghdad
"Do I want to [get into a war with Iran]? No, I want to have peace. I like peace."
"And Iran should want to have peace more than anybody. So I don't see that happening."
U.S.President Donald Trump
"You have won a victory. You have delivered your message."
"We will take our fight to expel U.S. troops from our land to parliament, and if we don't succeed, we will return."
Mohammed Mohyee, political spokesman, Kataib Hezbollah, Iraq
"Yay! We burned them!", chanted the 'protesters' supporting Kataib Hezbollah after marauding around the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad, after tossing Molotov cocktails over the barrier, after climbing the barrier once they flooded into the protective Green Zone, and accessed the exterior of the barricaded embassy, smashing a window, bashing in a door, keeping the American diplomats under siege overnight in bomb-proof chambers. Oh yes, the United States got its deserved come-uppance; no fooling around with dedicated Islamist jihadis.
By the following morning, the gloating supporters of the Shiite militias received an order to decamp from its position around the U.S. embassy. The two embassy reception areas that they had torched on Thursday gave them great satisfaction and they looked forward to additional displays of disaffection with the presence of the U.S. military on Iraq soil which has effectively become an Iranian protectorate. It's remotely possible, of course that the thousands of Shiite rioters also responded to the more recent presence of U.S. Apache helicopter gunships dispatched to the area.
Along with the additional troop reinforcements sent to the region as backup from the 82nd Airborne Division's Immediate Response Force, and the anticipated follow-up in coming days with more American soldiers arriving. Along with a contingent of 100 Marines landing in the embassy compound grounds with a view to reinforcing the embassy protection force. But of course senior leadership of the Popular Mobilization Forces ordered the Shiite protesters' withdrawal.
Finally a Kataib Hezbollah official showed up to instruct the 'demonstrators' to leave after two Iranian-backed groups refused compliance with the initial order, pointing out only their own leaders had the authority to order their withdrawal. Kataib Hezbollah stated their agreement to end the protest resulted once Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi agreed to support efforts in parliament passing a law to call for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.
But in the meantime, just to leave no room for further misunderstandings, the U.S. military launched a surprise strike at the Baghdad airport in a pre-dawn attack, illustrative of fairly robust intelligenceAt the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
that Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite al-Quds force and architect of its regional security apparatus would be arriving at the airport in a vehicle convoy. Neither of the men are any longer among the living, removing two threats to regional stability and world peace.
![Two unnamed US officials told Reuters news agency that the US carried out the airstrike that killed Soleimani [File: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/11/18/093e8f39c2dd486c81e516867197d660_18.jpg "Iran's Qassem Soleimani killed in US airstrike at Baghdad airport") |
| Two unnamed US officials told Reuters news agency that the US carried out the airstrike that killed Soleimani [File: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP] |
Labels: al Quds, Conflict Resolution, Embassy, Hezbollah, Iraq, IRGC, United States
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 03, 2020
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