Iraqi Popular Mobilization Committee Chairman Faleh al Fayyadh discussed security and counterterrorism cooperation with Russian Ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev in Baghdad on February 1.[35] Fayyadh and Kutrashev discussed “exchanging experiences” between the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Russia. The PMF is an Iraqi security service that contains several Iranian-backed Shia militias. Kutrashev told Russian media on January 25 that Russia seeks to expand its “presence” in Iraq and “invest additional resources in areas related to security.”[36] Kutrashev met with Iraqi President Abdul Latif al Rashid and Iraqi Shia cleric and politician Ammar al Hakim on January 23 and 31, respectively.[37]
full report: https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-february-1-2024
The United States struck over 85 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force and Iranian-backed militia targets in Iraq and Syria on February 2.[1] The strike involved “numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from [the] United States” using “more than 125 precision munitions.”[2] The strikes targeted operations and intelligence centers, rockets, missiles, drone storage facilities, and “logistics and munition supply chain facilities” of the IRGC and Iranian-backed militia groups.[3]
US President Joe Biden called these strikes the beginning of the US response to the January 28 Iranian-backed attack in Jordan that killed three US servicemembers but vowed that the response will “continue at times and places of our choosing.”[4] US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the strikes are the “start of the response” and that Biden has already “directed additional actions to hold the IRGC and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on US and Coalition forces.[5]
full report: https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-february-2-2024