In Baghdad, the residence of the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi was fired upon.
According to the latest information, on Sunday night, the prime minister returned late due to meetings with the security forces, entered into a confrontation with the protesters at the southern gates of the "green zone".
And at the moment when he entered the residence, this place was attacked by a mined drone.
To the gallery page
“The attack on the prime minister’s house was carried out from three drones, two of them were shot down, and the third reached the target” (Saad Maan, Iraqi Interior Ministry).
The video, taken by unknown persons, captures lightning points moving with lightning speed over the "green zone" (the government and diplomatic guarded quarter of Baghdad) - drones.
One of the points flares up and explodes, reaching its goal - the Prime Minister's house.
Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi survived an assassination attempt with armed drones that targeted his residence early Sunday and officials said he was unharmed.
pic.twitter.com/KLEQHD3Z37
- Tehran Times (@ TehranTimes79) November 7, 2021
According to Iraqi official sources, several people were injured, and the prime minister himself was not injured.
However, social networks drew attention to the fact that in today's video message to the people of Iraq, the prime minister's hand was bandaged, and some Iraqi journalists wrote that, according to sources close to al-Kazimi, he was still wounded in the arm and leg and received medical assistance in Hospital Ibn Sina in the "green zone" of Baghdad.
🔺As I said before, according to sources close to PM, AlKadhim was slightly injured in hand & another in foot as a result of a failed assassination attempt that targeted his house with booby-trapped drones.
* received treatment at Ibn Sina Hospital in the Green Zone.
https://t.co/8u0b2cnHGSpic.twitter.com/rGeRfAszXq
- Ali Al-Mikdam علي المكَدام (@ali_almikdam) November 7, 2021
In the residence there are doors demolished by the explosion, windows blown out, concrete structures of the foundation and steps smashed by the blast wave.
Perhaps, if the other two drones (if we adhere to the official version) had not been shot down, they would have razed the house to the ground, and the prime minister had no chance of surviving.
Footage showing the damage caused by the drones attack that targeted the home of the Iraqi Prime Minister @MAKadhimi last night pic.twitter.com/18Hjm25Nqx
- Mustafa Salim (@Mustafa_salimb) November 7, 2021
But he is alive, well, speaking to the press and taking support calls from world leaders all day: French President Emmanuel Macron called, the British Foreign Minister made a statement.
And the head of the US State Department, Tony Blinken, in a telephone conversation with al-Kazymi "condemned yesterday's terrorist attack" and called the incident "an attack on the sovereignty and stability of Iraq."
Let's consider two versions of what happened: 1) a real attempt, which I will conditionally call a “warning telegram” to Prime Minister al-Kazim;
2) a successful special operation of the intelligence officer al-Kazimi.
Version 1: "Warning"
The moment for an attack on the Prime Minister of Iraq in the context of his battle with pro-Iranian proxies really looks the most logical and convincing from the outside.
Back in late August, I warned that Iraq should prepare and explain why.
In short, in addition to directly influencing the parliamentary elections (lost dry), Iran has another major reason for the battle for Iraq: the withdrawal of American troops is planned for the end of 2021, and Khamenei is ready to fight hard for the vacant seat after the Americans, intending to occupy the American niche ...
Without a "pro-Iranian" Iraq, the Iranian passage to Syria is blocked, for which years, billions of dollars and thousands of lives were spent.
As part of this strategic battle for Iraq, squeezing the Americans out of there and building an unhindered transit to Syria, the "sacrifice" of Soleimani and the head of the Iraqi People's Mobilization Forces "Al-Hashd al-Shaabi", the "Shiite militia" of Iraq Abu Al-Muhandis happened ...
And Mustafa al-Kazimi, who became prime minister in May 2020, was actively taking Iraq out of this pro-Iranian orbit.
Let me remind you that now Iran is fierce because of the loss of the pro-Iranian blocs in the last parliamentary elections.
His main strong point, the Fatah bloc, behind which stands the most important pro-Iranian paramilitary group, Al Hashd al-Shaabi, blew out the elections, losing almost half of the seats that he had in the previous convocation.
I must say that Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi did everything to avoid falsification and voting of "dead souls" - the elections in the country were controlled by UN observers with the approval of the greatest Shiite leader Ayatollah al-Sistani, a biometrics system was introduced for voting.
In such conditions, the Iranian magicians failed to achieve the previous miracles, and they were predictably upset.
The results of the elections in Iraq were announced on October 12, that is, for almost a month now, pro-Iranian groups have been rocking Iraq from the inside with protest actions, blocking roads, setting fire to tires, and armed attacks on state security forces.
One of the latest Iranian creatives is a sit-in strike just opposite the very "green zone" where the government, diplomatic missions, including the US embassy are located.
But the guys got bored of sitting, and they decided to break into the "green zone", where, to the delight of their Iranian curators, they met stiff resistance from the security forces, and a big scuffle began, in which more than 100 people were injured.
Near Green Zone, Baghdad, now.
A group of “demonstrators” who are “protesting” against Iraqi election results, apparently have tried to storm the green zone, some also have moved their tents closer to the area, Pro-Shia paramilitary channels say pic.twitter.com/LcgDJrvYXL
- Nafiseh Kohnavard (@nafisehkBBC) October 23, 2021
And then, according to the classics: accusations of violence against peaceful protesters, demands for investigation and punishment of the authorities for not allowing them to walk inside the "green zone" and look at the light at the beloved American embassy.
Iraqi sources write that right these days there is a distribution of posts in the new government, in which pro-Iranian figures are no longer present.
By the way, I assumed that Tehran was preparing a serious action on October 22, when I learned that the former Prime Minister of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, had come to Tehran.
He led the government before al-Kazimi and was ousted by protests in late 2019 and early 2020.
They say that under him the head of the Qods Force, Qasem Soleimani, flew to Baghdad by helicopter and held workshops in the chair of the prime minister, his friend Abdul Mahdi.
What wonderful days!
Therefore, when the ex-prime minister was summoned to Tehran and talked about something for a long time with Khamenei's adviser on international affairs, giving a press conference to the Iranian media (the Ayatollahs gently reminded the guest of the days of former greatness and, perhaps, promised a return to Iraqi politics), it became it is clear that something serious is being started.
And now, two weeks later, three kamikaze drones attack the Prime Minister's residence.
But again, knowing the Iranians, one can assume that they wanted to intimidate the prime minister.
So to speak, they made an offer that cannot be refused, strictly in the spirit of Mario Puzo and in the style of Hezbollah.
For the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, for example, did not have a chance to survive: from the explosion of a mined minibus, which his motorcade caught up with in February 2005 in Beirut, 21 people died at once, 220 were injured, and all over the block from the blast wave glass in the windows of houses.
The perpetrators were named by the court - members of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
And here - a bandaged hand.
The conclusion is simple: if pro-Iranian groups were behind this assassination attempt, then the prime minister would rather simply intimidate and remind that without Iran's participation the fate of post-war Iraq will not be decided and there will be no peace without him (although was he and is he now, when pro-Iranian militias are integrated into the Iraqi state security system, receive a salary from the Iraqi state and serve Iranian interests?).
Immediately after the assassination attempt, journalists began to quote Qais al-Hazali, the leader of the pro-Iranian Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the key characters in the BBC film about the head of the Quds Force, and Qasem Soleimani's closest friend and ally.
Allegedly, the day before, he threatened Prime Minister al-Kazimi, saying: "He will pay his price for this."
(As in a classic detective story, the first suspect is the one who threatened the victim - in this case, thank God, the survivor.)
Immediately after the night incident, when there was a strong smell of smoke and the consequences, Khazali made an urgent statement about his innocence and, moreover, hinted at the staging of the assassination attempt by the Iraqi special services: reliable technical committee ”.
Note: 24 hours after the assassination attempt on the prime minister, the current head of the Quds forces, Ismail Kaani, entered Iraq to meet with the leaders of the pro-Iranian militias, including the very same Qais al-Khazali.
Version 2: "Special operation of the scout al-Kazimi"
At the end of the day after the assassination attempt, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi made a statement: “We will pursue those who tried to kill me.
We know them and we will reveal them. "
Iraqi PM Kadhimi: we will pursue those who tried to assassinate me.
We know them & we will reveal them.
https://t.co/RQcoyoWzgz
- David M. Witty (@ DavidMWitty1) November 7, 2021
The assassination attempt on the prime minister has already caused a wave of national cohesion around him, fighting for "Iraqi sovereignty, peace and stability."
If it turns out that pro-Iranian figures tried to kill the prime minister of the country, and it is proved that they received money for this, nothing worse for Iranian interests in Iraq can be imagined.
In addition to arrests, a trial and legitimization of the persecution of all political forces with connections and funding from Iran, the Ayatollahs and the IRGC will receive an unprecedented information campaign against them, which will be supported by both the Shiite politician Muqtada al-Sadr and the great Shiite Ayatollah al-Sistani - that's all.
Iraqi sovereignty is sacred, and it is not without reason that this very formulation about "an attempt on sovereignty" and about terrorism has been voiced several times over the past day.
And for some reason I personally have no doubt that the names and proofs will be heard.
Considering that al-Kazimi headed Iraqi intelligence and thinks, like his opponents from the Quds forces, within the framework of special operations, it is possible that the Iraqi intelligence had the facts that an order for the assassination had been received, and, being informed, did not become pluck it, and spent it in the "correct" scenario for myself.
The drones were intercepted, video recordings in the city recorded them in the Baghdad night sky, the house was damaged, there are no corpses and bloody bodies, but there is a Prime Minister with a bandage on his arm.
And now is the time to open and publish the entire chain from performers to customers.
It is possible that Iraq and Iraqi intelligence simply return the ball to Iran, which, after the assassination attempt on Soleimani on Iraqi territory, also later used the "martyrs" of the Iranian Suleimani and the Iraqi Al-Muhandis as a symbol of Iranian-Iraqi unity against the American aggressor and then opened it for a long time and with pleasure the entire network of those involved in the conspiracy.
Among those arrested and executed later in Iran were many personal enemies of Suleimani - both in the Iraqi agents, and in the Ministry of Intelligence, and even in the IRGC.
But this is a completely different story - a personal, internal Iranian one that does not concern either us or the Iraqi prime minister.
The winner of the parliamentary elections, the Shiite Ayatollah Muqtada al-Sadr, whom Iran tried to pass off as its own by publishing a photo of the spiritual leader Kayhan in the Kayhan newspaper immediately after the announcement of the election results, where he is sitting next to Raisi and Khamenei in an Iranian mosque, unexpectedly made two statements that shocked Iran.
# Iran's Keyhan (Khamenei mouthpiece) spins #IraqElections as Shia Islamist victory:
“US + Saudi sought to remove Shia Islamists from politics, but Islamists won the majority of Shia seats.
Factions of Sadr, Maliki, Amiri, Hakim are Islamist… meaning [Islamism] is people's preference ”pic.twitter.com/L9eXkRNGaS
- Kasra Aarabi (کسری اعرابی) (@KasraAarabi) October 12, 2021
The first is that any force that tries to challenge Iraqi sovereignty will be outlawed and punished.
Second, immediately after the victory, Sadr posted a tweet in which the word "remaining" was used in relation to the American group of forces.
That is, Sadr made it known that the new Iraqi parliament is ready to discuss the conditions for retaining the American military contingent.
The most important point in Muqtada al-Sadr's tweets today is the use of the terms baqa'a & remaining when talking about the US forces.
Sadr is no longer talking about withdrawal of @CJTFOIR.
He wants to negotiate the conditions based on which the US troops stay in Iraq.
pic.twitter.com/9Ed4neEc4g
- Hamdi Malik, Ph.D.
(@HamdiAMalik) October 17, 2021
After all, this is their only insurance policy against the Iranian takeover.
Mustafa al-Kaziyemi is the prime minister of Iraq, who previously headed the national intelligence.
He is a smart, cunning and careful player.
During the reign of Saddam Hussein, he was a fierce critic of him and therefore, fleeing persecution, left the country through the Kurdish provinces, fled first to Germany, then to England, where he edited the American Al-Monitor, and then settled in London for seven years and headed Iraq Memory Foundation.
He returned from Great Britain as a top-class specialist - and therefore, apparently, headed the national intelligence.
I wrote about it in detail in the column "Dance with snakes".
In an interview with The Guardian, he compared himself to a tightrope walker balancing on a tightrope between two tall buildings (the United States and Iran), as well as a cobra charmer whose task is to find the correct flute.
Beating on the forehead, threatening, blackmailing, using brute force are not his methods.
He just needed time to find a flute that would make the snakes dance.
He studied his snakes well.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.