Free Republic

Iranians and Iraqis are celebrating after the Pentagon, under the direction of President Trump, carried out an airstrike in Baghdad that killed Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani. The action came in response to an Iran-led attack on the US embassy in Iraq. Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard CorpsÂ’ elite Quds Force, a designated terror group since 2007, was despised by many in Iran, and by Iraqis who have been subject to a campaign of terror in their own country at the hands of forces operating in lockstep with the Iranian military. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo...

BAGHDAD In a move certain to inflame sectarian tensions, Iraq's Shiite and Kurdish leaders said Wednesday that they supported the existence of an Iranian-trained Shiite militia and praised the militia's role in trying to secure the country. It was the first time the new Iraqi government has publicly backed an armed group that was created along sectarian lines and it was an implicit denial of repeated requests by U.S. officials that the government disband all militias. The remarks supporting the Shiite militia were made in the morning at an unusual news conference where speakers included Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi prime...

A former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the FBI says played a role in a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 U.S. servicemen, accompanied Iraq’s prime minister to the White House on Monday, attending an event at which President Obama trumpeted the end of the Iraq War. Hadi Farhan al-Amiri, transportation minister in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, was part of the delegation that visited the White House to discuss Iraq’s future and Iran’s influence there, among other topics. -excerpt - Louis J. Freeh, who served as FBI director in the Clinton administration and the early months...

BAGHDAD — Over the past three decades, Hadi al-Amiri has gone from being a guerrilla fighting on behalf of Iran against his home country, Iraq; to notorious militia leader accused of running "death squads"; to parliament member in Baghdad, where he has emerged as a key player in the fight against the Islamic State (IS). “The Iraqi people, they love bravery,” Amiri said, by way of explaining his newfound influence. -excerpt- Amiri is the leader of the Badr Organization, a Shiite militia infamous during Iraq's civil war for its brutal tactics, which has now transformed into a political party that...

A Shiite Muslim political leader said Friday that rumors were circulating of an impending coup attempt against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and warned that "we will not allow it." A new government would mean "canceling the constitution, canceling the results of the elections and going back to square one . . . and we will not accept that," he said. Amiri is also a top official in the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the leading member of a coalition of Shiite political parties governing...