U.S. airstrikes in Amerli supported deadly Shia terror group

Long War Journal ^ | September 2, 2014 | By Bill Roggio

[Brad from Tennessee]

While helping Iraqi forces to break the Islamic State's siege of Amerli, the US Air Force supported a deadly Shia militia that is responsible for killing hundreds of US soldiers. The Shia militia, known as Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, has also captured and executed US soldiers and British citizens in the past.

Iraqi forces, supported by "paramilitary forces" such as the League of the Righteous, advanced on Amerli late last week and reached the town by Aug. 31, The Washington Post reported. By Sept. 1, the siege, which lasted for more than two months, was lifted.

Na'im al Aboudi, the spokesman for the League of the Righteous, confirmed that his group is operating in Amerli and in surrounding villages.

As of Aug. 31, the US military launched four airstrikes against Islamic State forces in Amerli, according to US Central Command, or CENTCOM.

"At the request of the Government of Iraq, the US military conducted airstrikes in support of an operation to deliver humanitarian assistance to address the humanitarian crisis and protect the civilians trapped in Amerli, Iraq at approximately 8:30 p.m. EDT today [Aug. 30]," CENTCOM reported. Three airstrikes and a humanitarian aid drop were conducted on Aug. 30, and another on Aug. 31.

The League of the Righteous was formed in 2006 as an offshoot of Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army. The militia was the largest and most powerful of what the US military called the Special Groups, or Shia militias backed by Iran. The group was at the forefront in using EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, the deadly landmines that can penetrate US armored vehicles. Hundreds of US soldiers were killed in EFP attacks. . .

[2ndDivisionVet]

Win/win, as “you-know-who” would say.

[Prospero]

I personally helped bury a soldier killed by one of those Iranian-made shaped charges. Lifting the siege at Amerli was important, the Turkmen ethnics living there was being starved out by the Black Flaggers, but this the first time anyone's talked Shi'ite militia moving in now from the east.

What a monkey cluster.

[BCW]

...and this is what happens when going into a moslem nation split into three major areas...be it Sunni, Shia, and Kurds... The only ones that REALLY supported us (KURDS) the US has turned its back on several times...but the Sunni and Shia - responsible for most of the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan - we continue to aid...

[themidnightskulker]

I can’t imagine that we do not “have a plan”.

[piasa]

bump