Will Iran-backed factions attack US troops in Iraq?
Pro-Iranian militias in the Popular Mobilization Units are calling for taking strong action against the United States and for even targeting its presence in Iraq.
Following a series of airstrikes that Israel is suspected of conducting against Iran-backed groups of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), calls for US troops to be attacked in revenge for the attacks is on the rise in Iraq.
Ayatollah Sayed Kazem al-Haeri, who is an Iran-based Shiite cleric close to Iran-backed PMU factions, issued a fatwa Aug. 23 calling upon the PMU and all other Iraqi armed forces to fight US troops and exile them from the country.
“I declare from the position of religious responsibility that the presence of any US military force in Iraq is forbidden [haram] under any title: military training, advice or the rationale of fighting terrorism,” Haeri said in his fatwa.
Although the United States denied any involvement in the strikes against the PMU and said it is cooperating with Iraqi authorities in the investigation of the attacks, the pro-Iranian militias accuse the United States of being behind the assaults.
