Tabnak – The recent wave of Israeli strikes against the positions of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) appears to be coming back to haunt Tel Aviv itself, as the organization is said to start the formation of its own air force directorate. The move could have serious implications for Iraq and the whole region.
According to a Press TV report, Iraqi pro-government Popular Mobilization Units have announced the formation of their own Air Force Directorate after government probes revealed that the Israeli regime could be behind several attacks on the bases of the volunteer forces.
The second-in-command of the Popular Mobilization Units, Jamal Jafaar Mohammed Al Ebrahim – better known by the nom de guerre Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, issued an administrative order on Thursday, declaring the decision and appointing Salah Mahdi Hantous as the directorate’s chief.
Last week, Ahmad al-Assadi, spokesman of the Fatah Alliance, told journalists that the Baghdad government was preparing a complaint to the United Nations against Israel over attacks on the position of Popular Mobilization Units – commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi.
“Some of the government investigations have reached a conclusion that the perpetrator behind some of the attacks is absolutely, certainly Israel,” he said, declining to provide details on the evidence.
“The government is preparing sufficient evidence and documents to complain to the [UN] Security Council. It won't submit a complaint against an unknown entity,” Assadi said.
Iraq's military said on August 26 it had launched an investigation into a purported Israeli strike that killed two Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters near the town of al-Qa’im close to the country's western border with Syria.
On August 29, Mansour al-Baiji, a member of the State of Law political coalition in the Iraqi parliament, called on the Baghdad government to forge an alliance with the countries that have protracted disputes with the United States in order to strike Israel in the wake of recent airstrikes on Hashd al-Sha’abi forces.
“The persistence of the Israeli regime and its targeting of military sites within our territory have not occurred unexpectedly, but rather under the auspices of the United States. They (Americans) opened the Iraqi airspace for them, and orchestrated the entire scenario. They are partners to the targeting of our territory,” the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted him as saying in a statement.
He called on former orime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, President Barham Salih and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi to refrain from "condemnation and denunciation," and instead “strike up alliances with the great powers that have disputes with [the United States of] America and bolster relations with Russia and China in a bid to ensure international protection” for Iraq.
Sayf al-Badr, the spokesman for the Iraqi Health Ministry, said in a statement that at least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in a powerful explosion that rocked a military base in southern Baghdad on August 12.
An ammunition warehouse reportedly exploded inside a federal police military base, named Falcon, in Owerij area near the southern district of Doura.
Arabic-language al-Ahad TV television network reported on July 19 that a drone had dropped explosives onto a base belonging to the Popular Mobilization Units near the town of Amerli, located about 170 kilometers north of the capital, in the early hours of the day, killing at least one PMU fighter and injuring four others.
Additionally, the Iraqi al-Etejah television network reported that an American B350 reconnaissance plane had flown over the area a few days earlier.
The Israeli regime has also a record of attacking the forces fighting Takfiri Daesh terrorists in Syria.
In June 2018, Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.
Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Sha’abi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the United States.
