BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- The secretary general of Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba resistance group on Monday held U.S. occupation forces responsible for the upsurge in terrorist attacks by Daesh across the country, saying the current situation proves that terror outfits are all tools in the hands of hegemonic powers.
“The rise in criminal activities of Daesh sleeper cells, behind which the occupier is standing, is yet more evidence that this terrorist organization is nothing but a miserable tool in the hands of global arrogance. We call upon our brave brethren serving within the ranks of security forces and Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) not to be lenient and to mount preemptive strikes” against Daesh, Akram al-Kaabi wrote in a post published on his Twitter page.
Kaabi said the current developments sound the alarm bells for Iraqi security forces and anti-terror PMU fighters known as Hashd al-Sha’abi to target terrorist hideouts in northern and eastern provinces of Kirkuk and Diyala.
“We should not overlook vicious conspiracies aimed at diverting Iraqi forces’ attention away from the present state of affairs and plunging the country into spiraling crises,” the Harakat al-Nujaba chief noted.
On October 27, Daesh carried out an attack on a military base in Rashidiya, in the northern outskirts of Baghdad, shortly after the terror group launched a series of deadly raids in the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahuddin.
The attack came one day after Daesh elements killed 14 civilians and injured 15 others in the village of Al-Hawasha near the town of Muqdadiya in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province.
On Sunday, Hashd al-Sha’abi said it had launched a joint operation with the Iraqi army to purge Hamrin mountains in Diyala of Daesh militants.
Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.
Iraq declared victory over Daesh in December 2017 after a three-year counter-terrorism military campaign, which also had the support of neighboring Iran.
The terror outfit’s remnants, though, keep staging sporadic attacks across Iraq, attempting to regroup and unleash fresh violence.
Daesh has intensified its terrorist attacks in Iraq since January 2020, when the United States assassinated top Iranian anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani and Hashd al-Sha’abi deputy commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, at Baghdad airport.