Islam Times – Over the past three weeks since the American-Israeli aggression against Iran started, one of the internal and foreign criticisms targeting Trump administration has been lack of a certain and pre-stated strategy about the course, goals, and the way of exit from war.On the other side, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been implementing its threats one by one, including regionalization of war and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, showing that it knows where it is heading, and through strategic dominance over the atmosphere and course of developments, it has been an active and determining actor in the conflict.
Within the framework of this strategic goal, in addition to launching heavy waves of missile and drone strikes by the Iranian armed forces targeting all of the American military bases in the region that led to constant destruction of the American military infrastructure, equipment, and logistics for which the US spent huge money and decades of time, Iran is also powerfully working to eliminate the pillars of legitimacy and justification of the US military and security presence in the region.
In this context, while Iraq has been one of the primary host countries for American forces in the West Asia region over the past two decades, its highly sensitive geopolitical position has made it crucial for advancing Washington’s military activities and strategic objectives in the area. The Israeli-American aggression, in Iran called Ramadan War, has expedited the end of this occupying presence for good.
The Ramadan War has increasingly drawn Iraq into the fray following the brutal aggression by the U S and the Israeli regime against Iran. Due to their strategic ties with the resistance front and their geopolitical interests in the conflict, Iraqi resistance forces have opened a new front against the American adversary.
Key interests for these groups include insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz and the crisis over oil sales, Washington’s illegal interventions in Iraq’s politics to pressure the government and resistance forces, military attacks on the Public Mobilization Forces (PMF) bases as part of Iraq’s official armed forces structure, and deep concerns over the destabilizing strategies of the US and the Israeli regime aimed at fragmenting regional countries and dominating their resources and future security arrangements.
Fighting between Iraqi resistance forces and American troops has been reported to be intense over the past few days. Although the US evacuated most of its bases in various parts of Iraq ahead of the conflict to safeguard its military personnel, relocating to the Al-Harir base in the Kurdistan region, the Victoria military base near Baghdad Airport and the logistical support camp for the US embassy in the same vicinity continue to witness a significant barrage of rocket and drone fire from resistance groups in recent days.
As a result of these attacks, reports suggested that over the past 48 hours the American forces asked the Iraqi forces for a respite from attacks for them to flee Victoria base. If this happens, the US military presence in Iraq will be limited to Al-Harir base in the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, first such status for the US military in Iraq since 2003.
These resistance attacks came in response to attacks by the Americans on the PMF sites that left some fighters and commanders killed and injured. The American fighter jets bombed headquarters of the PMF, Hashd al-Shabi in Arabic, in various parts of Iraq.
In the latest report from Iran’s Tasnim news agency, on Tuesday, the PMF announced that their headquarters in the Al-Habaniyah area of Anbar province, Iraq, was targeted by a US airstrike, resulting in the martyrdom of Saad Duwai al-Ba’aiji, one of the operation commanders, along with several of his comrades.
On the same day, the PMF issued another statement regarding attacks by the US and the Israeli regime on their posts in the Jurf al-Nasr/Sa’idat area, declaring that two fighters from the 47th Brigade were injured in this assault. Prior reports had indicated attacks on PMF locations in Babil and Ramadi provinces as well.
Now, Iraqi resistance groups, in addition to their unwavering determination to settle scores with the Americans and avenge the blood of their commanders and comrades, as well as the tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens killed by the American occupation military over the past two decades, see an opportunity to decisively resolve the issue of US military occupation in Iraq once and for all. They aim to heal this deep-seated wound decisively and permanently, free from the opportunistic considerations of self-interested politicians, and to alleviate the suffering brought upon the Iraqi people by the occupiers.
So far, as a result of this war, Germany and Spain, as NATO allies of the US, have fully announced their military withdrawal from Iraq. Undoubtedly, the Iraqi resistance, bolstered by the support of the grand Shia authority Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who condemned the American-Israeli aggression against Iran in the strongest terms, along with the collective will of the resistance front across the region and even the involvement of Muslim Kurdish peshmerga in the Kurdistan region, will target the last stronghold of American occupation forces in Iraqi Kurdistan in the next phases of the conflict, striving to cleanse all of Iraq from the presence of American occupiers.