By The Jerusalem Post (World News) | Created at 2024-09-26 09:30:13 | Updated at 2024-09-30 09:39:24
4 days ago
It is clear that the Iraqi militias are expanding their war against Israel and are increasingly a danger.
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN SEPTEMBER 26, 2024 11:52
Fighters of the Ansar Allah al-Awfiya (Loyal Supporters of God) Shiite group parade with their weapons on June 16, 2015 in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
(photo credit: AFP PHOTO / HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI (Photo credit should read HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP via Getty Images)
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, targeted Eilat on the evening of September 25, one of several increasing attacks from Iraq over the last two weeks. The militias have targeted Israel with drones and also claim they have launched cruise missiles. This is a dangerous escalation. The strike on Iraq included several drones, one of which was intercepted.
Can Israel deter the Iraqi militias? It would seem that they cannot easily be defeated because they are so large and there are so many of them.
Basically, the Iraqi militias consist of various pieces of the larger Popular Mobilization Units. These are a collection of Iranian-backed groups that grew out of the war on ISIS. However, many of them have deeper roots. Kataib Hezbollah, for instance, is closely linked to the IRGC in Iran. Some of the militias have thousands of members and are arranged into dozens of brigades. This means that attacking the militias themselves is not a welcome prospect for fighting them.
In the past, the militias have targeted US forces. After October 7, they carried out more than 100 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. The US responded several times. In April there was an explosion at the Kalsu base of the militias in Iraq’s Babil province. The militias maintain many bases and depots in Iraq. Some of these sites house their rockets and drones. The militias are believed to have brought ballistic missiles to western Iraq back in 2018. The militias also maintain networks across the border in Syria to move weapons into the Middle Euphrates River Valley. This method of movement of weapons can result in an arms flow to Hezbollah.
In the past, the militias have complained of attacks harming their bases in Iraq. For instance, back in 2019, there were several explosions at the bases of the Hashd al-Shaabi, the Arabic name for the Popular Mobilization Units.
One of the explosions affected their camp, Saqr, or “Falcon.” Some of their bases have roots in the era of Saddam or the US role in Iraq when the militias came to take over pre-existing warehouses and depots.
Iraqi militias are spread out
The Iraqi militias have generally been so spread out that it’s hard to know where their commands and controls are and what would make them feel they have been deterred. For instance, the US killed Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis during the airstrike on Qasem Soleimani in 2020, but Kataib Hezbollah wasn’t deterred. Back in January 2024, Kataib Hezbollah killed three US soldiers in Jordan. It seems messaging from Washington to Iran may have reined in the militias after that. However, airstrikes have deterred the militias.
Iran also doesn’t mind sacrificing poor Iraqis in its war on the US and Israel. Iran is happy to send some men from the militias to die launching drones and missiles, just to prove a point.
Iran’s IRNA claimed on September 26 that the strike on Eilat the night before targeted “Israel's main potash storage depot in Eilat port.” The report went on to note that “Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba's office in Tehran, in a statement, announced that the Islamic Resistance targeted the warehouse of one of the Zionist regime's strategic economic reserves in the port of Eilat, also known as Umm al-Rashrash, in the occupied territories on Wednesday evening.”
Harakat Hezbollah is a different Iraqi militia than Kataib Hezbollah. Both are proxies of Iran and work with the IRGC. IRNA claimed that “Informed sources from inside the occupied territories also reported that due to this accurate and successful drone strike, it is not possible to export this strategic mineral from Eilat until further notice. Potash is Israel's most important mineral product, which the Zionist regime extracts from the Dead Sea and exports through the port of Eilat.”
Stay updated with the latest news!
Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter
It is clear that the Iraqi militias are expanding their war against Israel and are increasingly a danger. They have long-range missiles and drones. They will be used by Iran in the case of any escalation in Lebanon. They a lot of experience now in fighting ISIS and attacking US bases. Mostly, the attacks on the US bases are harassment using drones and missiles. But they have improved their weapons and their precision.
