BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The leader of Iraq’s Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq resistance group says the group has so far carried out 5,000 operations against occupying American forces present in the Arab country.
Qais al-Khazali was speaking on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the movement’s establishment on Saturday.
“Operations against American occupiers will continue in Iraq,” Khazali added.
He noted that the movement has been established on the basis of tenets and principles that it firmly believes in.
Khazali said Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq has played a crucial role in defending Iraq’s holy shrines against Takfiri terrorists, adding, “We are ready to be the first people to lay down our lives for Iraq and its people.”
He noted that resistance groups have also played a significant role in defending the holy shrines in Syria as well, when Takfiri terrorist tried to demolish them.
His remarks came after a high-ranking official with Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, which is part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), denounced the U.S. military presence in the Arab country, saying the American soldiers are a legitimate target as long as they are present on Iraqi soil.
Nasr al-Shammari, made the remarks in late April, saying the group has not struck a deal with U.S. forces to ease tensions and suspend retaliatory operations against American soldiers.
“Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba does not adhere to any political agreement that includes a ceasefire or reduction of tensions with American occupation forces,” he said, adding, “Our official position concerning the deployment of U.S. forces to Iraq has not changed at all.”
“We reiterate once again that the occupation forces are a legitimate target in Iraq and elsewhere across the West Asian region as long as they are present in Iraqi territories,” Shammari said.
While the United States claims it has ended its combat mission in Iraq, some 2,500 US troops still remain in the country. Under pressure from Iraqi people, US President Joe Biden and Iraq’s then Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi declared in July 2021 that the US mission in Iraq would transition from combat to an “advisory” role by the end of that year.
Anti-American sentiments have been simmering in Iraq over US military adventurism in the region, in particular since Washington’s assassination of the top anti-terror commanders of Iraq and Iran three years ago.
General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of the PMU, were martyred along with their comrades in a U.S. drone strike that was authorized by then President Donald Trump near the Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.