The Popular Mobilisation Units also
known as the Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia Hashd al-Shaabi, are prepared to fight alongside
forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a spokesman for the
group said on Saturday.
Ahmed al-Asadi, a spokesman for the Shia coalition,
told a news conference in Baghdad that: "After clearing all our land from these terrorist gangs,
we are fully ready to go to any place that contains a threat to Iraqi
national security." This announcement comes a day after the paramilitary umbrella
organisation dominated by Iran-backed militias announced that it had begun participating in
ongoing campaigns lead by the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi army to
liberate the city of Mosul from Islamic State fighters; engaging in an
offensive to capture the town of Tal Afar, west of the city.
Before Mosul operations began on October 16, a number of
international actors including the UK called for Hashd al-Shaabi to be
kept out of the battle for Mosul. The umbrella group has been accused of war crimes over the
past year during its campaigns to wrestle back control of Iraqi
territory from IS, for example in Fallujah in June where the group
stands accused of carrying out retributive killings on Sunni families.
A number of Iraqi Shia militias are already present fighting alongside pro-regime forces in Syria.
In early October The Wall Street Journal reported
that more than 1,000 Iraqi Shia fighters had travelled from Iraq since
early September in order to assist pro-regime forces engaged in an
assault on rebel-held east Aleppo, joining as many as 4,000 others
already positioned in the city.
Those travelling to the war-torn Syrian city purportedly included members of the Al Nujaba, or “The Noble Ones” militia. Source: The New Arab
0 comments:
Post a Comment