• Middle East: The death of an American contractor in the attack on an Iraqi military base raises tension between the US and Iran

The iconography of Sadr City was dominated since the 2003 invasion by the profusion of portraits of the great ayatollah Mohamed Sadeq al Sadr and his son, Muqtada al Sadr , until years later the visitors of that suburb of Baghdad began to discover banners with a design almost traced to that of the Lebanese Hizbullah Party.

At first, the appearance of the Hezbollah Iraq banners went unnoticed amidst the chaos and tragedy that the civil war was raging in those years in the Arab nation, but it was a simple confirmation of the preeminence that Iran was going to get in that country before the power vacuum generated by the onslaught of the United States.

In a major strategic error, which he could never redirect, and which began the decline of his preponderance in the Middle East, Washington allowed Iraq to become, step by step, an ideal scenario for the expansion of Iranian influence , which resulted in the creation of a myriad of related paramilitary organizations that today constitute a central element of political power in Baghdad.

The airstrikes launched by the US on Sunday against facilities of the aforementioned Hizbullah Iraq, which have left at least 25 dead and dozens injured, only open a new phase in the regional struggle between the US and Iran, which has exploded with all its virulence in Iraq

The military and political force of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq has not ceased to grow since December 2011, when the withdrawal of US forces that had participated in the catastrophic adventure of 2003 concluded. First they used Syrian territory as a field of training, when Tehran mobilized its allies to support the Bashar Asad regime.

Then, in 2014, when Iraq had to deal with the Islamic State offensive, Iran multiplied its assistance and sponsored the creation of the so-called Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which group together dozens of these factions - including Hezbollah - and currently They account for about 140,000 uniformed personnel equipped with tanks, artillery and weapons of all kinds.

Two years later, the local Parliament granted them official recognition by offering them the status of autonomous units of Iraqi uniforms and allocating them a large budget in 2019 at $ 2,160 million.

The three main groups - Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al Haq and Badr - also have a large parliamentary representation that has allowed them to accumulate control of ministries and significantly mark the performance of the prime minister, while establishing a solid presence in businesses such as charging fees at borders, some ports or at roadside controls.

As one of the leaders of Badr leaders, Karim al Nouri , said, the paramilitaries infiltrated the parliament "in civilian clothes, not with uniforms."

The key character of this whole network is Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis , a militant linked to Iran since the 1980s - he was sentenced to death in Kuwait for participating in the attacks against the US and French embassy that left five dead - who He was elected parliamentarian in 2005 and became an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari .

When the Americans made public their alleged relationship with the bloody event of Kuwait, during the Nuri al Maliki government , Muhandis took refuge in Iran where he assumed the leadership of Hezbollah Iraq. He now serves as 'number two' of the PMF.

Last September, local Iraqi media issued an order signed by this well-known militant, who urged the creation of an air force of this militia nebula outside Iraqi aviation.

According to the same information, Muhandis would have traveled to Tehran in August along with Qais al-Khazali , leader of Asaib ahl al-Haq, to ​​request the supply of anti-aircraft missiles that would defend their bases.

The theoretical head of the PMF, Faleh al-Fayadh - a more moderate character who tried to approach Washington, where he traveled last October - denied such an extreme, although experts warn that the Popular Mobilization Forces are far from maintaining a structure organized command and question Fayadh's ability to control Muhandis.

The initiative of the head of the Hezbollah ranks came precisely after the facilities of several of these paramilitary groups were attacked in the fall, bombings that the militia officers themselves attributed to Israel in collaboration with the US.

The current American attack puts the prime minister in office, Adel Abdul Mahdi , in an impossible position, who despite his efforts to try to maintain a position distant from both Washington and Tehran is overwhelmed by the new crisis in the country, which forced to resign in early December.

Mahdi criticized the US bombing and said it is "a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and a dangerous escalation that threatens the security of Iraq and the region."

In the broad Iraqi spectrum, disqualifications of what happened have been the majority even among the same demonstrators in Tahrir Square, which have been demanding the end of the significant power of the PMF militias in Iraqi politics for weeks.

The opponents described the Americans as "terrorists" and said that these bombings affect one of the "most important reasons" that have led to their mobilizations: "the humiliation of our sovereignty by all countries that has led to this corrupt political class which allowed the uncontrolled use of weapons outside the authority of the State. "

The possibility that the history of Iraq tries to emulate the bloody episodes that Lebanon had to endure, which in addition to its civil war had to suffer the rush that the Tehran acolytes and the US allies and troops were far from its territory, is far from Be a mere hypothesis.

Asaib ahl al Haq has already stated that "the US military presence - Washington maintains in Iraq 5,400 soldiers who are assisting in the formation of the local army - is a drag on the Iraqi state and a source of threats. " It is imperative to do whatever to expel them by all legitimate means. "

According to the Afp agency, since last October 28 there have been at least eleven attacks against Iraqi bases with the presence of US troops, including the one that cost the life of a contractor from that country in the northern city of Kirkuk in recent days, an event that Washington has used as justification for the present bombings.

The current escalation also entails a significant risk for the more than 500 Spanish military personnel deployed in the Arab country , where they also advise the Iraqi armed forces and share facilities with their US counterparts in locations such as the Besmayah base, located south of Baghdad, Taji and the Baghdad airport.

According to Iraqi media, Taji's facilities were hit by several rockets on Sunday after the US bombings and the airport has been the target of several missiles in recent days.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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