American, Iran-backed forces share base in Iraq — report

US military personnel and Shiite militia groups that take orders from Iran are sharing the Taqqadum military base in Iraq’s Anbar province, senior US administration officials confirmed Monday to Bloomberg View.

In addition, the US routinely provides air support for Shiite militias in their fight against the radical Sunni Islamic State group, and American weaponry trickles down from the predominantly Shiite Iraqi military and into the hands of militias including Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy group in Lebanon that fought a major war with Israel in 2006 and is currently propping up the Assad regime in Syria.

The militias comprise local Iraqi Shiites as well as thousands of hardened militants under the control of commanders who answer directly to Tehran, the report said.

The leader of the Shiite military groups in Iraq is Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, head of Hezbollah’s Iraq branch, which was active in the insurgency against American troops during US military activity in Iraq.

Muhandis is a close associate of Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian Quds Force commander, an elite special forces brigade within the Iranian Revolutionary Guards responsible for Iran’s extra-territorial military operations, which is designated a terror group by Canada and is also under a blanket financial ban by the US Treasury for terror-related activities.

Some of the commanders sit in on US military briefings on operations meant for the government-controlled Iraqi Security Forces. Others cooperating with the US in their fight against IS include the Khazali Network or League of the Righteous, which openly boasts about carrying out strikes on US soldiers in Iraq, including a 2007 attack in Karbala that left five Americans dead.

US President Barack Obama plans to send additional 450 US military personnel to the base to help train local forces.

Many of the Shiite militias have been accused of extra-judicial killings and human rights abuses in Sunni Muslim areas that have come under their control.

According to the Washington Institute think tank, three militias — the Khazali Network, Iraqi Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada — sent fighters to Syria to fight for Assad, and have mobilized Shiites in Iraq to fight against IS, the report noted.

“There’s no real command and control from the central government,” a senior administration official said. “Even if these guys don’t attack us … Iran is ushering in a new Hezbollah era in Iraq, and we will have aided and abetted it.”

“Despite its pledge to support Iraq’s stabilization, Iran increased training and funding to Iraqi Shia militia groups in response to ISIL’s advance into Iraq,” the US State Department said, referring to the Islamic State group by one of its acronyms.

“Many of these groups, such as Iraqi Hezbollah, have exacerbated sectarian tensions in Iraq and have committed serious human rights abuses against primarily Sunni civilians. Similar to Hezbollah fighters, many of these trained Shia militants have used these skills to fight for the Assad regime in Syria or against ISIL in Iraq,” it added.