Ahmed Al-Dabbagh - Al-Jazeera Net
It is a bloody scene that is not strange on the Iraqi street. On Monday evening, unknown gunmen assassinated a prominent security expert, Hisham Al-Hashemi, with silencer weapons near his house in the Zayouna district of Baghdad, in a scene that threatens to activate the scene of political assassination in the country.
Al-Hashemi - who was specialized in studying and analyzing the affairs of Islamic State and armed groups in Iraq - has been working for years on presenting studies and articles on the overall security situation in the country, but the last days of his life were filled with a series of tweets and interventions on the security situation, and the recent incident in a region Al-Dora in Baghdad, when a government counter-terrorism force arrested a group of the Hezbollah Brigades faction of the Popular Mobilization on suspicion of involvement in firing shells targeting the American embassy in Baghdad.
Video of a gunman assassinating prominent Iraqi security analyst Husham Al Hashimi.
Many in #Iraq & across the region are holding the regime in #Iran & the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) responsible for this assassination.pic.twitter.com/qkxD03RUql
- Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) July 6, 2020
The assassination of the word
and security expert Ahmed Al-Abiad says that the political assassination in the country recently passed a period of lethargy as a result of international and local positions in the country, which did not allow "criminal entities" to enter into the chaos of assassinations, especially after the assassination of an American by air strikes by Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, vice president The Popular Mobilization Organization and the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, near Baghdad Airport early this year, and the killing of more than 35 activists and media outlets directly after the beginning of the popular protests last October.
On the assassination of Al-Hashemi, Al-Abyad believes in his talk to Al-Jazeera Net that what he described as the stage of breaking the bone began with the assassination of Al-Hashemi, as he was close to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi.
Al-Abyad commented that "the message was clear to Al-Kazemi in the ability of extremist militias and criminal gangs to stop his endeavors, especially since the last two months were Hashemi clear in putting points on letters regarding the fugitive weapon in the country."
Al-Abyad concludes that creating chaos and mixing papers was evident in the assassination letter of Al-Hashemi in order to silence activists and media people and silence mouths, pointing out that Al-Kazemi’s government is facing a difficult test.
As for the political researcher, Ghanem Al-Abed, he believes that there is a clear strategy to silence all opposition voices that are used by what he called "the deep state or militias", especially since the recent popular protests witnessed the liquidation of dozens of activists and media outlets opposing Iran's role in the country.
In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Abed notes that the recent government operation against what is known as the "Katyusha cell" in the Dora area in Baghdad at the end of last month against elements of the armed factions, making it move against everyone who talks about the necessity of the Iraqi government to control the border crossings, especially that Iranian support The financial has declined a lot in recent months.
Al-Abed fears that the armed factions are trying to confuse the Al-Kazemi government by fabricating many security and other problems in order to hinder the government's reform efforts and find a justification for its continued influence in the country.
He stressed that the Al-Kazemi government faces a difficult test to uncover the killers of Hashemi and his predecessors and present them to the judiciary. Otherwise, the assassination will target many political, media and societal figures.
Accusing the State of the State
Despite the accusations directed at the armed factions of the assassination of Al-Hashemi, there are those who believe that the State Organization has the primary interest in that, including MP Naim Al-Aboudi, a spokesman for the Parliamentary Bloc of “Sadikoun” (the political arm of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq), who confirms that Al-Hashemi had a role Senior in providing security advice to Iraqi forces in their war against ISIS.
Al-Aboudi confirms that Al-Hashemi has provided dozens of studies on extremist groups and the organization of the state, and has contributed to advising the counter-terrorism apparatus, the Iraqi army, and the popular crowd; All this made him the target of the organization that he threatened more than once.
On the assassination, Al-Aboudi sees in his talk to Al-Jazeera Net that Iraq lost a political, intellectual and security figure, and that the country is sad for its loss, pointing out that there is an attempt to cause discord and chaos in Iraq through the accusations that were made against certain parties in the first moments of his assassination, and therefore there are many signs The question about who made the accusations in every direction.
Also in this direction, security and strategic expert Fadel Abu Ragheef, who confirmed that there are many parties that benefited from the assassination of Al Hashemi, is that the Islamic State is one of the first parties concerned with his liquidation and silence his voice, after he practiced a great psychological war against the organization in previous years. .
Abu Ragheef adds that there are some parties that do not know the exact (unnamed) interest in targeting Hashemi, who was a reformist enlightening thought, pointing out that Hashemi was a great harm to extremist organizations regardless of their ideological affiliation, as he was putting Always the points on the letters, and the other analysts distinguished boldly.
On the role and responsibilities of the Al-Kazemi government, Abu Ragheef asserts that Al-Kazemi faces many challenges represented in the economic file, and the militarization of some political blocs, as well as parliamentary and regional challenges.
A little while ago, the people of Tahrir Square stand in front of the house of the martyr Hisham Al-Hashemi, and they comfort his family and children pic.twitter.com/P1958i6EP2
- Hassan Rahm (@ Hassan_raham2) July 7, 2020
Journalist Raed Jameel holds that the primary goal of the assassination of Hashemi is to silence his loud voice, especially since he recently began revealing many facts related to the deep state, which is trying to destabilize the security situation in the country, and the Iraqi land is used as a stage of a clash with the acting American forces On Iran, and therefore it was necessary to prevent the delivery of this information to the public opinion.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Jamil indicated that the assassination was a veiled message to the Al-Kazemi government, as information indicates that Al-Hashemi had been chosen to work within the Al-Kazemi advisory team, and was tasked with researching the formations of armed and strategic factions that adopted them, and the differences between those factions.
The charges remain here and there, between accusing the state of responsibility for the assassination, and accusing the armed factions loyal to Iran, but it seems that the clear truth to the Iraqis is that the word has become a bullet.