BAGHDAD (Tasnim) – The commander of Anbar operations for the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), known in Arabic as Hashd al-Sha’abi, says the presence of American so-called advisers and intelligence forces in Iraq is more dangerous than its military presence in the country.
In an interview with Al-Ahed channel, Qassem Musleh said there would be no Daesh in Iraq as long as there is PMU forces are present in the country, and added “it is not easy for the Daesh fugitives from the Syrian prison of Hasakah to enter Iraq”.
At least 70 inmates were killed in the Daesh’s attack on Hasakah prison, which began on Thursday.
The Daesh terrorists detonated a car bomb near the prison gates, helping dozens of inmates flee to the neighboring Ghwayran district of Hasakah, witnesses and officials said.
The U.S.-backed SDF initially said it had thwarted the breakout and arrested nearly 90 militants sheltering nearby, but later acknowledged that inmates had taken over parts of the facility.
“We have taken adequate security preparations to prevent the entry of terrorists into Iraq,” Musleh said, noting that there are good security coordination between the Iraqi forces and the Syrian side.
Musleh added that all of Iraq including its tribal and security forces are prepared and ready “to prevent the bitter experience of 2014,” vowing that there will be no scene of Daesh in Iraq as long as there is a popular mobilization force present in the country.
“Today, the PMU is a striking ideological force capable of performing its duty to the fullest extent, and we have a strong intelligence system,” he continued.
The commander of Anbar also censured the presence of U.S.-led foreign forces in Iraq, pointing out that they have targeted the PMU in the past and warning that they might do it again as their drones are flying over their units in the town of al-Qaim all the time.
According to another report, American forces stationed in Syria have sent a new convoy of tanker trucks carrying stolen Syrian oil to northern Iraq.
On Wednesday, Syria’s official news agency SANA cited local sources from al-Yarubiya area in the countryside of Hasakah province as saying that a convoy of 130 tanker trucks loaded with Syrian crude oil was transferred to the Iraqi village of Mahmudiyah, which lies to the south of the illegal border crossing of al-Waleed, on Tuesday.
According to the report, the smuggled oil was stolen from Syrian oilfields by the U.S. forces in cooperation with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The stolen oil was transferred through a passage to Mahmudiyah that had been previously opened by the U.S. troops to pave the way for dozens of trucks carrying smuggled goods belonging to the SDF militants to enter the area of al-Jazeera in northeastern Syria via al-Waleed crossing.
The sources further said that a convoy of 46 trucks carrying logistical equipment belonging to the U.S. forces entered the Syrian territory via al-Waleed crossing, hours after the oil was smuggled to Iraq on Tuesday.
The U.S. military regularly smuggles Syrian oil to Iraq, in violation of international law.