Who bombed Iraq’s al-Hashd al-Shaabi HQ?

As Iraq investigates a huge explosion at one of the country’s main headquarters for the al-Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), security sources have said it was an “attack” caused by an “airstrike”. 

The blast at the Kalsu base in Babil Province, which killed one PMF soldier and injured eight others, is also home to the office of the PMF’s chief of staff, Haj Abu Fadak, adding significant weight to its importance and raising more questions over who targeted it, and why? 

The Iraqi government says no planes or drones were flying above the area before or at the time of the explosion. This is most likely true.

Sources within the PMF say a medium-range missile with a powerful warhead was fired by an Israeli warplane that violated Syrian airspace without entering the skies of Iraq.

Soil samples from the crater and rocket remnants examined in laboratories by a technical committee tasked with investigating the explosion found the presence of three explosive materials TNT, ammonium nitrate, and dibutyl phthalate which has raised the suspicion of potential espionage.

The explosion came after Iran changed the entire regional equation with Operation True Promise against “Israel”, in response to the apartheid regime’s airstrike against the Iranian consulate in Syria. 

In the Western world, staunch Israeli allies continue to defend the terrorist attack on the Islamic Republic’s consulate by attempting to justify it, citing the presence of Iranian IRGC advisors in the diplomatic mission. 

This is while the US embassy in Baghdad is the most heavily militarized so-called diplomatic mission on the planet with sophisticated missile systems in its courtyards. 

Despite reports of a drawdown, this US military base in the Iraqi capital has thousands of American army personnel who are doing anything but processing visa applications.

Iraqi officials have long accused the US embassy and its ambassador, Alina Romanowski, of more than just interfering in the country’s internal affairs, but ruling Iraq. 

An attack on the PMF’s Kalsu base is backed up by evidence, including previous US airstrikes on PMF positions and the large craters they leave behind. 

Furthermore, while the Kalsu base had an arms cache, the explosion of dysfunctional ordnance wouldn’t leave such a crater in the ground, more than three meters deep. 

When a PMF missile depot exploded at al-Saqr base near Baghdad in July 2020 – a missile base much larger than the ammunition stored at Kalsu – the blast did not leave a crater. 

Yet, it is unlikely the US targeted the base on this occasion. There is an informal agreement between the Iraqis and the Americans that stipulates an end to attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria in return for an end to attacks and assassination campaigns on the PMF. There are no indications to suggest this status quo has changed. 

More importantly, it wasn’t the PMF that targeted US military bases in Iraq and Syria around 200 times after the Gaza genocide began. 

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq carried out the operations and claimed responsibility for all of them‌, stating they were staged in solidarity with Gaza and for America’s complicity in the genocide. 

In February, the Iraqi Resistance announced a suspension of operations against the American bases, allowing Washington and Baghdad to resume talks aimed at ending the US occupation of Iraq. 

Since then the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has turned its attention to increasing its operations against vital Israeli interests in the occupied lands, including the Golan Heights. 

What began as one drone operation every other week in January has now expanded to almost daily drone and missile attacks targeting Israeli military, energy sites, and airports. At times, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has waged three operations in one day. 

It’s part of the “second phase” that the Resistance has vowed would include a maritime blockade against Zionist ships in the Mediterranean. 

That has clearly put “Israel” on edge, and amid an official trip by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to the US, only “Israel” would have benefited from targeting the PMF at one of its most sensitive sites. 

In Washington, al-Sudani had much to discuss with US President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Topping his agenda was to speed up the US withdrawal from Iraq. 

Yet “Israel” doesn’t want to see American troops leave Iraq. Tel Aviv is seeking a return to the days of the Iraqi Resistance striking US interests, not Israeli interests. 

The Pentagon was very quick to deny its involvement. But there is no doubt “Israel” consulted and sought permission from Washington before targeting Iraqi soil, where the US military is scattered and may also face retaliation. 

Iraq is another front that was opened against the Israeli occupation after Lebanon and Yemen amid the Gaza genocide. Hours after the strike on the Kalsu base, the Iraqi Resistance struck the occupied Palestinian city of Umm al-Rashrash [Eilat]. 

The key question that many should ask is; why would “Israel” target the PMF instead of the Iraqi Resistance?

There are two reasons. The Iraqi Resistance is not an army with publicly known bases. The PMF is. Iraq’s Resistance operates in guerrilla warfare. The PMF doesn’t. 

Secondly and more importantly, such is the fame of the PMF inside Iraq that attacking the force triggers the biggest anti-American sentiment in public opinion. 

This was evident in the aftermath of the assassination of the PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by the US in January 2020, and more recently other PMF commanders, including Abu Baqir al-Saadi in February this year. 

By attacking the PMF headquarters, the “Israeli” attempts for the Iraqi Resistance to end its strategic patience and resume attacks on US bases highlight a major lack of understanding by Tel Aviv and Washington about the capabilities of this Resistance. It may backfire on both enemies of Iraq. 

Differentiating between the PMF and the Iraqi Resistance 

The Iraqi Resistance today is made up of several factions, notably Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada and Harakat al-Nujaba. 

The Secretary-General of Harakat al-Nujaba, Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi, points out “Iraqi oil reserves are looted and go to the US Federal Reserve, wherever there is oil, the Americans are there, even in the battles against ISIS, the US played a negative role, our sovereignty is being violated by the US.”

Asked if the government is agitated when prominent figures say Iraq lacks sovereignty, he replied, “This is the reality. The government is aware. Iraqi airspace is being violated and this reality requires the government‌, not just the Resistance to take a firm and serious decision to end the US occupation. US interference [in Iraq] distracted the politicians.” 

On how he would deal with the occupation, al-Kaabi said, “As an Iraqi Resistance we only speak with arms. The only option to end the American occupation is through arms. Talks alone won’t deliver results”. 

He goes on to say armed operations against US forces help the government in its talks to end the occupation. 

The Secretary-General of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Abu Alaa al-Walai, agrees that the Resistance is “a powerful force that helps the government to end the US occupation.”

“If the US forces extend their stay beyond the withdrawal talks, they are captives in Iraq,” he added, in a direct warning to Washington. 

The Secretary-General of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Qais al-Khazali, underlines, “We have every right under the universe to use force against a foreign occupation”. 

Two years ago, I asked a senior commander with Kataib Imam Ali (a PMF unit), more popularly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Azrael, how he would respond to the US assassination of the highest-ranking PMF commander and founder, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis?  

“This isn’t something in my hands or [the PMF’s] hands. We have to await orders from the Iraqi government and the Iraqi military hierarchy on how we respond to this cowardly attack,” he replied.  

The PMF takes its military orders from the Iraqi government after being integrated into the National Armed Forces. 

The Iraqi Resistance was formed in 2003 after the US invasion and occupation of the country. It staged deadly operations against the US army, forcing then-President Barack Obama to withdraw American forces in late 2011. 

The PMF was formed in the summer of 2014, after ISIS occupied two-thirds of Iraq and allowed US forces to slip into the country for the second time through the back door. 

The US-trained Iraqi army collapsed in the summer of 2014, similar to how the US-trained Afghan army collapsed in 2021. 

Between 2014 and 2017, the Iraqi Resistance integrated itself within the PMF to fight‌, contain, and eventually defeat ISIS. 

Amid those three dark years for Iraq, its neighbor Iran also sent military advisors and weapons to assist the PMF. 

After the defeat of the terror organization in 2017, Iranian military advisors returned home. The US chose to maintain a combat presence in the country and has turned – in the eyes of the Iraqi parliament, officials, the general public and the Resistance – into a second American occupation. 

Despite being integrated into the national armed forces in 2016, US leaders and Western corporate media have claimed on numerous occasions the PMF is an “Iranian-backed Shia militia”, or more recently “Iranian-backed militants”. 

The PMF is comprised of dozens of units, answers to the Iraqi Commander in Chief, and operates where the Iraqi hierarchy dispatches them. 

The PMF receives its paycheck, pension, weapons and orders from Baghdad, not Tehran, and has a quota system, which means there must be a certain number of Sunni Muslims, Christians, and others among its ranks that represent every religious and ethnic group in Iraq.  

There are more Sunni forces in the PMF than there are in the regular Iraqi army.  

Likewise, there are more Christian forces in the PMF than there are in the Iraqi army.  

Iran certainly was the first to arm and train the PMF during the days of ISIS, which threatened to spread its terrorism to the region and beyond. 

Tehran no longer does. 

“We don’t take orders from Iran. But we are grateful for their neighborly advice and their help during the days of ISIS.” Abu Azrael says. 

US obsession with PMF and Kataib Hezbollah 

The PMF is very much loved within Iraq. It has factions that were once with the Resistance that forced American troops to leave in 2011. 

Today, they have political branches that have won elections and occupy many parliamentary seats. 

That angered the US, which didn’t expect its former enemies to be in parliament today. 

One of these factions is Kataib Hezbollah. 

During the first American occupation between 2003 to 2011, Kataib Hezbollah played a key role in the Iraqi Resistance that forced the Americans to withdraw. 

Its founders include Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, whom the US assassinated. Other senior commanders and members have been assassinated by the US or have had sanctions imposed on them. 

Kataib Hezbollah also played a major role in defeating ISIS terrorism when it changed the tide of the war in the battle of Amerli after the town was under siege by the terrorists. 

The force also had close ties with Iranian military advisors during the era of ISIS. 

This may have frustrated American plans to keep its forces inside Iraq, especially when US generals were openly stating it would take more than a decade to liberate Iraq from the terrorists. 

The PMF, spearheaded by Kataib Hezbollah and others, completed the task in three years. And the cities in which they led the operations, such as Tikrit, saw 3% damage to the infrastructure. 

Whereas the US-led operations against ISIS, like in Mosul, saw the second largest city in Iraq, at the time, razed to the ground after American warplanes carpet bombed its neighborhoods, leaving hundreds of thousands internally displaced. 

Today, amid the second American occupation, the Iraqi Resistance, as well as the PMF’s political wings, are imposing a lot of pressure on the government to finally put an end to the US military presence after the genocide in Gaza.