By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
    
On June 25 when the US occupation troops, along with a group of Iraqi mercenaries posing as soldiers, attacked a base in Baghdad of Hashd ash-Sha’bi or the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) and kidnapped a dozen anti-terrorist fighters, little did the CENTCOM terrorists thought that they were digging their own graves.
Immediately the various organizations of the Iraqi people notified the elected authorities of this fresh act of lawlessness by the Americans – who should not be present on the soil of Iraq at all – and the flurry of talks that took place made the Iraqi government to pressure the CENTCOM terrorists to release the abductees.
This was indeed a victory for the PMU and the celebrations that took place on the streets of Baghdad included the burning of the US flag – the most hated symbol of racism and hegemony which is being torched daily on the streets of the various towns and cities of the US itself for the past month following the criminal killing of Afro-American citizen George Floyd in Minneapolis by a group of cowardly white racist police officers.
Of course, the jubilant Iraqi demonstrators also made a bonfire of the Zionist flag and trampled upon the pictures of child-killer Benjamin Netanyahu and his boss in Washington, Donald Trump, the international terrorist.
The PMU, along with leaders of various political factions, ethnic groups and religious figures, has sternly warned the CENTCOM terrorists of devastating attacks on their illegal bases in Iraq, if they repeat such provocative acts and continue to linger on Iraqi soil.
The US pretext for attacking the headquarters of Kataib Hezbollah was the allegation that members of this famous anti-terrorism unit had lobbed the latest round of rockets on an American base north of Baghdad.
This was a lame excuse and further exposed the illegitimacy of the US military presence in Iraq.
It should be noted that on January 5 the Iraqi parliament had unanimously passed a bill for closure of all US military bases on Iraqi soil, two days after the cowardly US assassination at Baghdad international airport of the iconic Iranian anti-terrorist figure, Lieutenant-General Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq’s PMU, along with some of their companions.
The only reason that the law was not implemented was the absence of a government in Iraq, following the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi in November 2019.
Now with the formation of a cabinet of national accord under Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, approved by the parliament last month, there is no valid reason for any delay in showing the exit door to the CENTCOM terrorists.
Moreover, there is no necessity for any negotiations in this regard between Iraq and the US, and any notion of talks is a time-wasting tactics by Washington in complicity with some dubious elements in political circles in Baghdad.
It seems, there is a contest of wills between the US and the Iraqi people, who reserve the right to target American military bases on their soil if these detested elements do not leave.
This, however, does not mean Kataib Hezbollah or any other PMU faction was involved in the latest rocket attack, which could have been the work of Washington’s favourite mercenaries, the tafkiri terrorists.
These developments warrant the Iraq government to be extra cautious when dealing with the US, and as the PMU, which includes people from all strata of the Iraqi society, has warned, Iraqi authorities should not play into the hands of the US military forces.
The Iraqi people are now waiting to see concrete action in this regard by the Iraqi government, since any delay will only undermine the peace, stability, and economic progress of the country.